Molecular tailoring: a possible synthetic route to hexasilabenzene.

The possible synthesis of hexasilabenzene was studied as the consecutive reaction of three disilyne units in order to find a suitable substituent. Although there is a reaction pathway which leads to hexasilabenzene in the case of hydrogen (A) and phenyl (B) groups, and it is thermodynamically and kinetically favourable, the reaction can easily proceed toward octasila species which makes it impossible to keep the synthesis under control and prepare hexasilabenzene. In contrast to this, using a methylated terphenyl (D) substituent, the addition of the third disilyne unit to the four-membered silicon ring (D5) is highly unfavourable because of the steric hindrance of the substituents. The terphenyl group (C), however, seems to be a perfect substituent because the reaction pathway leading to substituted hexasilabenzene consists of thermodynamically favourable steps and small activation barriers, and further reaction is hindered by the bulky substituents. We suggest synthesizing hexasilabenzene from terphenyl-halosilanes, performing reductive dehalogenation.

Trimethylaluminum and borane complexes of primary amines.

Trimethylaluminum (TMA) complexes of methyl-, n-propyl-, cyclopropyl-, allyl-, and propargylamine were synthesized and their experimental properties and theoretical characteristics were compared with the respective amine-borane analogues. The amine ligand of an amine-TMA Lewis acid-base complex can be easily changed by another amine through a 2:1 amine-TMA intermediate in pentane at room temperature. The exchange of the same ligands in the case of amine-boranes requires remarkably more time in line with the calculated relative energy of the respective transition state. The (1)H and (13)C NMR experiments examining the addition of one or more equivalent of amine to the respective Lewis acid-base complex conclude in the fast exchange of the amine ligand in the NMR time scale only in the cases of amine-TMA complexes, which could also be caused by similar 2:1 complexes. However, in gas phase, only 1:1 amine-TMA complexes are present as evidenced by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS). The observed UP spectra, which are the first recorded photoelectron spectra of primary amine-TMA compounds, indicate that the stabilization effect of the lone electron pair of nitrogen atom in amines during the borane complexation is stronger than that of the TMA complexation. In line with this observation, the destabilization of the σ(Al-C) orbitals is lower than that of σ(B-H) orbitals during the formation of amine-TMA and amine-borane complexes, respectively. As showed by theoretical calculations, the CH(4) elimination of the studied amine-TMA complexes is exothermic, indicating the possibility of using these compounds in metal organic chemical vapor deposition techniques (MOCVD). On the other hand, our experimental conditions avoid this methane elimination and constitutes the first procedure employing distillation to isolate primary amine-TMA complexes.

On the mechanism of the reaction of white phosphorus with silylenes.

Four different mechanisms and the effect of bulky groups were studied in the reaction of ({HC[CMeN(R)]2}Si, R = 2,6-diisopropylphenyl) with white phosphorus. The carefully tested B3LYP-D, ωB97X-D, and SOS-MP2 methods, by the CCSD(T) method, with cc-pVTZ basis set provided consonant results which support the reliability of our results and the applicability of these methods. The dispersion energy contribution to the total energy is estimated to about ∼70 kJ mol(-1) which proves the essential role of dispersion corrected methods. Based on the computed results we suggest a new mechanism which is fully supported by the experimental conditions. The investigation of the bulky groups clearly demonstrates an internal catalytic feature which has an essential role in the reaction mechanism. Usually bulky substituents prevent or reduce the reactivity, in this case however, substituents promote the reaction.

The mechanism and energetics of insertion reactions of silylenes.

56 insertion reactions between seven silylenes and eight reactants were investigated using B3LYP/cc-pVTZ method. The reaction energies and the stability of the silylenes are in good correlation. Silaimidazole-2-ylidene gives the highest reaction energies while Kira's stable five membered ring dialkylsilylene shows the smallest reaction energies. All the reaction energies and activation energies of the six-membered ring diazasilylene ({HC[CMeN(R)](2)}Si, R = 2,6-diisopropylphenyl) were found equal to that of the saturated five-membered diazasilole. The sum of the reaction free energies (ΔG) and activation free energies (ΔG(‡)) of a reaction depend on the reactant but are independent of the silylene.

Combining the chemistries of silylene and sulfur-nitrogen compounds--SiS2N2 and related systems.

A new class of inorganic systems is introduced in which a silylene fragment is combined with a sulfur-nitrogen fragment. The properties of the resulting "sulfur-nitrogen silylenes" have been studied using quantum chemical calculations, focussing on isodesmic reaction energies, dimerization, electro- and nucleophilicity, and the singlet-triplet energy gap-a number of as yet unsuccessful attempts to prepare the compounds is also reported. These new systems are found to be stable silylenes in which the sulfur-nitrogen fragment stabilizes both the singlet and the triplet states through extensive electron delocalization.

Differences between amine- and phosphine-boranes: synthesis, photoelectron spectroscopy, and quantum chemical study of the cyclopropylic derivatives.

Borane complexes of aziridine, phosphirane, cyclopropylamine, cyclopropylphosphine, cyclopropylmethylamine, and cyclopropylmethylphosphine have been prepared by the reaction at low temperatures of a borane complex or diborane on the free phosphine or amine. The products characterized by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry have then been investigated by photoelectron spectroscopy and B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ quantum chemical study. The complexation led to rotamers with structures similar to the ones of the corresponding free systems. The main geometry change with the complexation is the P-C bond elongation and the N-C bond shortening, which can be rationalized by the charge transfer attached to the electron donation. The calculated relative stability order of the conformers changes with the complexation only in the case of cyclopropylamine. The calculated complexation energies are higher for the amines, in accord with the differences observed in the flash vacuum thermolysis of methylamine-, methylphosphine-, and aziridine-borane. The photoelectron spectra indicate essential differences between the amines and phosphines toward borane complexation. The dative bond is more stable in the studied amine-boranes than in phosphine-boranes, while the sigma(B-H) orbitals are more stable in the latter compounds. The enthalpy of the hydrogen release reaction of aziridine-borane is almost thermoneutral, indicating the potential of this complex as recyclable hydrogen storage material.

Mercury dications: linear form is more stable than aromatic ring.

Analysis of the molecular orbitals and the nucleus independent chemical shift showed that the D(4h) and D(6h) symmetry Hg(4)(2+) and Hg(6)(2+) rings are aromatic. However, accurate quantum chemical methods indicated that the linear forms are more than 100 kJ mol(-1) lower in energy. This surprising case, where the non-aromatic species are considerably more stable than the aromatic rings, was explained by the charge distribution and the ring strain. Electronic structures of these species were consistently described using the phenomenological shell model of metal clusters.

Accurate interaction energies at density functional theory level by means of an efficient dispersion correction.

This paper presents an approach for obtaining accurate interaction energies at the density functional theory level for systems where dispersion interactions are important. This approach combines Becke and Johnson's [J. Chem. Phys. 127, 154108 (2007)] method for the evaluation of dispersion energy corrections and a Hirshfeld method for partitioning of molecular polarizability tensors into atomic contributions. Due to the availability of atomic polarizability tensors, the method is extended to incorporate anisotropic contributions, which prove to be important for complexes of lower symmetry. The method is validated for a set of 18 complexes, for which interaction energies were obtained with the B3LYP, PBE, and TPSS functionals combined with the aug-cc-pVTZ basis set and compared with the values obtained at the CCSD(T) level extrapolated to a complete basis set limit. It is shown that very good quality interaction energies can be obtained by the proposed method for each of the examined functionals, the overall performance of the TPSS functional being the best, which with a slope of 1.00 in the linear regression equation and a constant term of only 0.1 kcal/mol allows to obtain accurate interaction energies without any need of a damping function for complexes close to their exact equilibrium geometry.

Synthesis, photoelectron spectroscopy and quantum chemical study of kinetically unstabilized phosphines complexed by borane.

Ethynyl- and allenylphosphine-boranes have been prepared by addition at low temperature of borane on the free phosphine. Purification was performed by selective trapping in vacuo and the complexes were characterized by NMR and infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. A kinetic stability lower than that of the corresponding free systems was observed. A series composed of these compounds and methyl-, vinyl-, allyl- and propargylphosphine-boranes was investigated by photoelectron spectroscopy and B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ quantum chemical study in order to define the variation in the electronic effects between the free systems and the corresponding complexes. Although the complexation only led to minor changes in the unsaturated moiety, the P-C bond shortens in all cases because of the charge transfer from phosphorus to boron. Similar rotamers can be found in the complexes and the free systems, and the order of the relative stability is reversed only in the case of the allenyl derivative. The calculated complexation energies are between 80-100 kJ mol(-1) in agreement with flash vacuum thermolysis experiments. The photoelectron spectra can be easily described in the case of alpha,beta-unsaturated compounds by the change of the direct conjugation between the lone electron pair and the pi-bond in the free phosphines to hyperconjugation of the sigma(P-B) bond with the unsaturated moiety in the corresponding complexed derivatives. In the case of beta,gamma-unsaturated derivatives the observed hyperconjugation in phosphines disappears on complexation.

Growth mechanism and chemical bonding in scandium-doped copper clusters: experimental and theoretical study in concert.

Size matters! The electronic structure and size-dependent stability of neutral and cationic scandium-doped copper clusters have been investigated by mass spectrometric studies (for the cations) and also quantum chemical computations. The proposed reaction paths ultimately lead to the most stable Frank-Kasper-shaped Cu(16)Sc(+) cluster (shown here), which could be the germ of a new crystallization process.Electronic structure and size-dependent stability of scandium-doped copper cluster cations, Cu(n)Sc(+), were investigated by using a dual-target dual-laser vaporization production scheme followed by mass spectrometric studies and also quantum chemical computations in the density functional theory framework. The neutral species also were studied by using computational methods. Enhanced abundances and dissociation energies were measured in the case of Cu(n)Sc(+) for n=4, 6, 8, 10 and 16, the last of these identified as being extraordinary stable. Neutral clusters are stable with n=5, 7, 9 and 15, which are isoelectronic with respect to the number of the valence s electrons with the stable cationic clusters; hence a simple electron count determines cluster properties to a great extent. The Cu(17)Sc cluster was found to be a superatomic molecule, containing Cu(16)Sc(+) and Cu(-) units; however, the charge separation is not as pronounced as in the case of CuLi. Cu(15)Sc was found to be a stable cluster with a large dissociation energy and a closed electronic structure; hence this can be regarded as a superatom, analogous to the noble gases. The main factors determining the growth patterns of these clusters are the central position of the scandium atom and the successive filling of the shell orbitals. For smaller clusters, the reaction paths appear to diverge yielding various products; however all paths ultimately lead to the most stable Frank-Kasper shaped Cu(16)Sc cluster, which in turn can be the germ of the crystallization process.

The Cu7Sc cluster is a stable sigma-aromatic seven-membered ring.

Density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the global minimum of the Cu(7)Sc potential energy surface is a seven-membered ring of copper atoms with scandium in its center, yielding a planar D(7) (h) structure. Nucleus-independent chemical shifts [NICS(1)(zz) and NICS(2)(zz)] show that this cluster has aromatic character, which is consistent with the number of 4s electrons of copper and scandium plus the 3d electrons of scandium satisfying Hückel's rule. According to a canonical MO decomposition of NICS(1)(zz) and NICS(2)(zz), the MOs consisting of the 4s atomic orbitals are mainly responsible for the aromatic behavior of the cluster. The electron localizability indicator (ELI-D) and its canonical MO decomposition (partial ELI-D) suggest that a localized basin is formed in Cu(7)Sc by the copper atoms whereas the two circular localized domains are situated below and above the ring. The planar Cu(7)Sc cluster can thus be considered as a sigma-aromatic species. These findings agree with the phenomenological shell model.

Functionalized tellurols: synthesis, spectroscopic characterization by photoelectron spectroscopy, and quantum chemical study.

Ethene-, cyclopropane-, 3-butene-, and cyclopropanemethanetellurol have been synthesized by reaction of tributyltin hydride with the corresponding ditellurides and characterized by 1H, 13C, and 125Te NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The tellurols of this series, with a gradually increasing distance between the tellurium atom and the unsaturated group, have been studied by photoelectron spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. Two stable conformations of ethenetellurol and cyclopropanetellurol, five of allyltellurol, and four of cyclopropanemethanetellurol were found. In the photoelectron spectrum of vinyltellurol, the huge split between the first two bands indicates a direct interaction between the tellurium lone electron pair and the double bond. In the allyl derivative, a hyperconjugation effect was found for the most stable conformers. In contrast to the vinyl compounds, no direct interaction between the lone electron pair of X (X = O, S, Se, and Te) and the three-membered ring could be observed in the cyclopropyl derivatives. A hyperconjugation-like effect, which is independent of the relative orientation of the X-H group, is found to increase from S to Te. Thus, the type and extent of the interaction between the TeH group and an unsaturated or cyclopropyl moiety are clarified while the first comparison of interactions between the nonradioactive unsaturated chalcogen derivatives is performed.

The use of atomic intrinsic polarizabilities in the evaluation of the dispersion energy.

The recent approach presented by Becke and Johnson [J. Chem. Phys. 122, 154104 (2005); 123, 024101 (2005); 123, 154101 (2005); 124, 174104 (2006); 124, 014104 (2006)] for the evaluation of dispersion interactions based on the properties of the exchange-hole dipole moment is combined with a Hirshfeld-type partitioning for the molecular polarizabilities into atomic contributions, recently presented by some of the present authors [A. Krishtal et al., J. Chem. Phys. 125, 034312 (2006)]. The results on a series of nine dimers, involving neon, methane, ethene, acetylene, benzene, and CO(2), taken at their equilibrium geometry, indicate that when the C(6), C(8), and C(10) terms are taken into account, the resulting dispersion energies can be obtained deviating 3% or 8% from high level literature data [E. R. Johnson and A. D. Becke, J. Chem. Phys. 124, 174104 (2006)], without the use of a damping function, the only outlier being the parallel face-to-face benzene dimer.

Silylenes: a unified picture of their stability, acid-base and spin properties, nucleophilicity, and electrophilicity via computational and conceptual density functional theory.

Conceptual DFT gives sharp definitions for many long-known, but rather vaguely defined chemical concepts. In this study DFT-based reactivity indices are applied to silylenes in order to elucidate the relationships among their properties: stability, acid-base, and spin properties, nucleophilicity and electrophilicity. On the basis of a detailed, comparative analysis of previously published data, it is shown that the properties of simple silylenes can be tuned by varying one single factor, the pi-electron donating ability of the substituents of the silicon atom leading to well-characterized and systematic changes in the stability/reactivity pattern of the molecule. In order to test the model a series of new compounds are studied: including CH3SiR (where R = CH3, NH2, OH and SH), Si(Si(CH3)3)2, Si(CF3)2 and benzo-, pyrido-, pyridazo-, and pyrimido-anellated-1,3,2lambda2-diazasiloles.

Formation of phosphaethyne dimers: a mechanistic study.

High-level ab initio (CCSD(T), CBS-QB3 and CASSCF, CASPT2, MR-ACPF, MR-ACPF-2) and density functional theory (B3LYP) calculations were carried out to study the dimerization of phosphaacetylene or phosphaethyne (HCP). Seventeen low energy closed-shell and five open-shell phosphaacetylene dimers were found on the potential energy surface. Two head-to-head, one head-to-tail and three other dimerization reaction pathways were determined, all with high activation barriers, suggesting that closed-shell minima are usually kinetically stable. An open-shell head-to-head reaction pathway has also been found with moderate initial barrier (95.0 kJ mol(-1)) leading to 1,2- and 1,3-diphosphacyclobutadiene, suggesting that polymerization of HCP and oligomerization of its derivatives have open-shell mechanism. Formation of 1,2-diphosphacyclobutadiene is both thermodynamically and kinetically favored over 1,3-diphosphacyclobutadiene. A head-to-head reaction involving LiBr as a catalyst was also studied. It has been pointed out that LiBr catalyze the closed-shell mechanism. All the four possible reaction channels of this reaction yield 1,4-diphosphatriafulvene with a fairly low activation Gibbs-free energy (44.8 kJ mol(-1)), suggesting that this compound could be synthesized. This finding fully supports the experimental results.

Carbon protonation of 2,4,6-triaminopyrimidines: synthesis, NMR studies, and theoretical calculations.

Several C5-substituted 2,4,6-triaminopyrimidine derivatives and their HBF4 salts were synthesized to study the carbon protonation of the pyrimidine ring. NMR investigations in DMSO-d6 prove experimentally that, in addition to the usual protonation at N1, the compounds can be protonated at C5 as well. We present several new stable cationic sigma-complexes in the pyrimidine series, where C5 protonation predominates over N1 protonation. Quantum chemical calculations using the B3LYP/cc-pVDZ method were utilized in the gas phase and also in DMSO solvent with the polarized continuum model (PCM) method to rationalize the observed protonation behavior. Results of the calculations accord with the experimental observations and prove that combined steric and electronic effects are responsible for the observed C5 protonation and for sigma-complex stability. We demonstrate that C5 protonation is a general feature of the 2,4,6-triaminopyrimidine system.

Synthesis and photoelectron spectroscopic studies of N(CH2CH2NMe)3P=E (E = O, S, NH, CH2).

The synthesis and the crystal and molecular structure of N(CH(2)CH(2)NMe)(3)P=CH(2) is reported. The P-N(ax) distance is rather long in N(CH(2)CH(2)NMe)(3)P=CH(2). The ylide N(CH(2)CH(2)NMe)(3)P=CH(2) proved to be a stronger proton acceptor than proazaphosphatrane N(CH(2)CH(2)NMe)(3)P, since it was shown to deprotonate N(CH(2)CH(2)NMe)(3)PH(+). The extremely strong basicity of the ylide is in accordance with its low ionization energy (6.3 eV), which is the lowest in the presently investigated series N(CH(2)CH(2)NMe)(3)P=E (E: CH(2), NH, lone pair, O and S), and to the best of our knowledge it is the smallest value observed for a non-conjugated phosphorus ylide. Computations reveal the existence of two bond strech isomers, and the stabilization of the phosphorus centered cation by electron donation from the equatorial and the axial nitrogens. Similar stabilizing effects operate in the case of protonation of E. A fine balance of these different interactions determines the P-N(ax) distance, which is thus very sensitive to the level of the theory applied. According to the quantum mechanical calculations, methyl substitution at the equatorial nitrogens flattens the pyramidality of this atom, increasing its electron donor capability. As a consequence, the PN(ax) distance in the short-transannular bonded protonated systems and the radical cations is longer by about 0.5 A in the N(eq)(Me) than in the N(eq)(H) systems. Accordingly, isodesmic reaction energies show that a stabilization of about 25 and 10 kcal/mol is attributable to the formation of the transannular bond in case of N(eq)(H) and the experimentally realizable N(eq)(Me) species, respectively.

Synthesis of phosphorus ylides bearing a P-H bond from a kinetically stabilized 1,3,6-triphosphafulvene.

In mixing 2,4,6-tris(2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,6-triphosphafulvene with alkyllithium compounds and acetic acid, both of nucleophilic alkylation and electrophilic protonation occurred at the exo sp2-phosphorus atoms to afford [2,4-bis(2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3-diphosphacyclopentadienylidene](alkyl)(2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenyl)phosphoranes which are phosphorus ylides that bear a P-H bond. A phosphorus ylide bearing both P-H and P-F bonds was obtained by reaction of 2,4,6-tris(2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,6-triphosphafulvene with hydrogen tetrafluoroborate, and the structure was determined by X-ray crystallography. Both P=C double bond and P(+)-C(-) zwitterionic character was indicated by the metric parameters. The isolated phosphorus ylide bearing a P-H bond, [2,4-bis(2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3-diphosphacyclopentadienylidene](2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenyl)phosphorane, showed no isomerization by H-migration to the corresponding phosphinodiphospholes, probably due to the pi-accepting ability of the unsaturated PC bonds and aromaticity of the C3P2 ring. The ylide structure and aromaticity of 2,4-diphosphacyclopenta-2,4-dienylidenephosphorane was characterized by theoretical calculations. In addition, the regioselective protonation of the lithiated phosphinodiphospholes generated from the 1,3,6-triphosphafulvene is discussed.

Theoretical study of low-lying triplet states of aniline.

Multireference complete active space self-consistent-field CASSCF(10,12)/ANO and second-order perturbation theory MS-CASPT2 calculations were performed to determine the vertical low-lying singlet and triplet states of aniline. The sequence of the seven lower lying triplet states is T1(1(3)A'), T2(1(3)A' '), T3(2(3)A'), T4(3(3)A'), T5(2(3)A' '), T6(4(3)A'), and T7(3(3)A' '). The 3(3)A', 4(3)A', and 3(3)A' ' states are assigned as 3s, 3py, and 3pz Rydberg states, respectively, while other states correspond to pi <-- pi excitations. Both the T1 and T2 states are found to be below at the lowest-lying singlet S1 (1(1)A' ') state. Geometry, vibrational modes, and electron distribution of the lowest lying T1 state were determined using UB3LYP calculations. The vertical and adiabatic singlet-triplet energy gaps DeltaE(S0-T1) amount to 3.7 and 3.5 +/- 0.2 eV, respectively. In clear contrast with the S0 state, the triplet aniline is no longer aromatic, and its protonation occurs preferentially at the ring meta-carbon site, with a proton affinity PA = 243 +/- 3 kcal/mol.