• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.763-770
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• 2003

The $BH_5$ molecule, which is suggested as an intermediate of the acidolysis of $BH_4^-$, contains a weak two-electron-three-center bond and it requires extremely high-level of theories to calculate the energy and structure correctly. The structures and energies of $BH_5$ and the transition state for the hydrogen scrambling have been studied using recently developed multi-coefficient correlated quantum mechanical methods (MCCMs). The dissociation energies and the barrier heights agree very well with the previous results at the CCSD(T)/ TZ(3d1f1g, 2p1d) level. We have also calculated the potential energy curves for the dissociation of $BH_5$ to $BH_3$ and $H_2$. The lower levels of theory were unable to plot correct potential curves, whereas the MCCM methods give very good potential energy curves and requires much less computing resources than the CCSD(T)/ TZ(3d1f1g,2p1d) level. The potential energy of the $BH_5$ scrambling has been obtained by the multiconfiguration molecular mechanics algorithm (MCMM), and the rates are calculated using the variational transition state theory including multidimensional tunneling approximation. The rate constant at 300 K is 2.1 × $10^9s^{-1}$, and tunneling is very important.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.2051-2055
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• 2013

Existing theoretical calculations predict that infrared spectra of the two most fundamental reactive carbo-ions, methyl cation $CH{_3}^+$ with $D_{3h}$ symmetry and protonated methyl cation $CH{_5}^+$ with $C_s(I)$, $C_s(II)$, and $C_{2v}$ symmetries, appear together in the 7-${\mu}m$ region corresponding to the C-H bending modes. Vibrational band profiles of $CH{_3}^+$ and $CH{_5}^+$ have been compared by ab initio calculation methods that use the basis sets of MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ and CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ. Our results indicate that the bands of rotation-vibration transitions of $CH{_3}^+$ and $CH{_5}^+$ should overlap not only in the 3-${\mu}m$ region corresponding to the C-H stretching modes but also in the 7-${\mu}m$ region corresponding to the C-H bending modes. Five band intensities of $CH{_5}^+$ among fifteen vibrational transitions between 6 and 8 ${\mu}m$ region are stronger than those of the ${\nu}_2$ and ${\nu}_4$ bands in $CH{_3}^+$. Ultimate near degeneracy of the two bending vibrations ${\nu}_2$ and ${\nu}_4$ of $CH{_3}^+$along with the stronger intensities of $CH{_5}^+$ in the three hydrogen scrambling structures may cause extreme complications in the analysis of the high-resolution carbo-ion spectra in the 7-${\mu}m$ region.