The dicarbon bonding puzzle viewed with photoelectron imaging
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s41467-019-13039-y.pdf
Description
Published version
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1.09 MB
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Author(s)
Laws, B. A.
Gibson, S. T.
Lewis, B. R.
Field, R. W.
Date Issued
November 2019
Journal
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Laws, B.A., et al., "The dicarbon bonding puzzle viewed with photoelectron imaging." Nature Communications 10 (Nov. 2019): no. 5199 doi 10.1038/s41467-019-13039-y ©2019 Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Bonding in the ground state of C[subscript 2] is still a matter of controversy, as reasonable arguments may be made for a dicarbon bond order of 2 , 3 , or 4. Here we report on photoelectron spectra of the C[superscript - over subscript 2] anion, measured at a range of wavelengths using a high-resolution photoelectron imaging spectrometer, which reveal both the ground X[superscript 1]Σ[superscript + over subscript g] and first-excited a[superscript 3]Π[subscript u] electronic states. These measurements yield electron angular anisotropies that identify the character of two orbitals: the diffuse detachment orbital of the anion and the highest occupied molecular orbital of the neutral. This work indicates that electron detachment occurs from predominantly s-like (3 σ[subscript g]) and p-like (1 π[subscript u]) orbitals, respectively, which is inconsistent with the predictions required for the high bond-order models of strongly sp-mixed orbitals. This result suggests that the dominant contribution to the dicarbon bonding involves a double-bonded configuration, with 2π bonds and no accompanying σ bond.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13039-y
