A valence bond model for electron-rich hypervalent species: application to SFn (n=1, 2, 4), PF5 , and ClF3.

Some typical hypervalent molecules, SF4 , PF5 , and ClF3 , as well as precursors SF ((4) Σ(-) state) and SF2 ((3) B1 state), are studied by means of the breathing-orbital valence bond (BOVB) method, chosen for its capability of combining compactness with accuracy of energetics. A unique feature of this study is that for the first time, the method used to gain insight into the bonding modes is the same as that used to calculate the bonding energies, so as to guarantee that the qualitative picture obtained captures the essential physics of the bonding system. The (4) Σ(-) state of SF is shown to be bonded by a three-electron σ bond assisted by strong π back-donation of dynamic nature. The linear (3) B1 state of SF2 , as well as the ground states of SF4 , PF5 and ClF3 , are described in terms of four VB structures that all have significant weights in the range 0.17-0.31, with exceptionally large resonance energies arising from their mixing. It is concluded that the bonding mode of these hypervalent species and isoelectronic ones complies with Coulson's version of the Rundle-Pimentel model, but assisted by charge-shift bonding. The conditions for hypervalence to occur are stated.

High-level ab initio potential energy surfaces and vibrational energies of H2CS.

Six-dimensional (6D) potential energy surfaces (PESs) of H(2)CS have been generated ab initio using the recently proposed explicitly correlated (F12) singles and doubles coupled cluster method including a perturbational estimate of connected triple excitations, CCSD(T)-F12b [T. B. Adler, G. Knizia, and H.-J. Werner, J. Chem. Phys. 127, 221106 (2007)] in conjunction with F12-optimized correlation consistent basis sets. Core-electron correlation, high-order correlation, scalar relativistic, and diagonal Born-Oppenheimer terms were included as additive high-level (HL) corrections. The resulting 6D PESs were represented by analytical functions which were used in variational calculations of the vibrational term values below 5000 cm(-1). The best PESs obtained with and without the HL corrections, VQZ-F12(*HL) and VQZ-F12∗, reproduce the fundamental vibrational wavenumbers with mean absolute deviations of 1.13 and 1.22 cm(-1), respectively. A detailed analysis of the effects of the HL corrections shows how the VQZ-F12 results benefit from error cancellation. The present purely ab initio PESs will be useful as starting points for empirical refinements towards an accurate "spectroscopic" PES of H(2)CS.