Ekaterina S. Shiryaeva

Communication: A hydrogen-bonded difluorocarbene complex: Ab initio and matrix isolation study.

Structure and spectroscopic features of the CF2⋯HF complexes were studied by ab initio calculations at the CCSD(T) level and matrix isolation FTIR spectroscopy. The calculations predict three stable structures. The most energetically favorable structure corresponds to hydrogen bonding of HF to the lone pair of the C atom (the interaction energy of 3.58 kcal/mol), whereas two less stable structures are the H⋯F bonded complexes (the interaction energies of 0.30 and 0.24 kcal/mol). The former species was unambiguously characterized by the absorptions in the FTIR spectra observed after X-ray irradiation of fluoroform in a xenon matrix at 5 K. The corresponding features appear at 3471 (H-F stretching), 1270 (C-F symmetric stretching, shoulder), 1175 (antisymmetric C-F stretching), and 630 (libration) cm-1, in agreement with the computational predictions. To our knowledge, it is the first hydrogen-bonded complex of dihalocarbene. Possible weaker manifestations of the H⋯F bonded complexes were also found in the C-F stretching region; however, their assignment is tentative. The H⋯C bonded complex is protected from reaction yielding a fluoroform molecule by a remarkably high energy barrier (23.85 kcal/mol), so it may be involved in various chemical reactions.

Matrix Isolation and Ab Initio Study on the CHF3···CO Complex

Intermolecular complexes between CHF3 and CO have been studied by ab initio calculations and IR matrix isolation spectroscopy. The computations at the MP2 and CCSD(T) levels of theory indicated five minima on the potential energy surface (PES). The most energetically favorable structure is the C(CO)-H(CHF3) coordinated complex ( Cs symmetry) with the stabilization energy of 0.84 kcal/mol as computed at the CCSD(T) level (with ZPVE and BSSE corrections). This is the only structure experimentally found in argon and krypton matrixes, whereas the weaker non-hydrogen-bonded complexes predicted by theory were not detected. The vibrational spectrum of this complex is characterized by a red-shift of the CF3 asymmetric stretching, splitting of the C-H bending mode, and blue-shifts of the C-H and C-O stretching vibrations as compared to the monomer molecules. The observed complexation-induced shifts of CHF3 and CO fundamentals are in good agreement with the computational predictions. It was shown that both MP2 and CCSD(T) calculations generally provided a reasonable description of the vibrational properties for the weak intermolecular complexes of fluoroform.