15min:
A NEGATIVE ION PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPIC AND COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF CrV AND MoV.

BEAU J. BARKER, SEAN M. CASEY, SIMSON ALEX, DOREEN G. LEOPOLD, Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

The heteronuclear diatomic metal ions CrV- and MoV- were investigated using negative ion photoelectron spectroscopy. These bare, heteronuclear group 5 and 6 transition metal dimers allow the study of multiple metal-metal bonding free of ligand effects. The photoelectron spectra, obtained at 488 nm with an instrumental resolution of about 5 meV (40 cm-1), provide measurements of the electron affinities, vibrational frequencies for both the anion and neutral states, bond length changes upon electron detachment, excited electronic state energies and spin-orbit splittings. The CrV- and MoV- spectra display transitions to the multiply-bonded 2 Delta (d pi)4(d delta)3(d sigma)2(s sigma)2 ground states of the neutral molecules and to several excited states. Addition of an electron to the vacant sigma* orbital gives the 3 Delta anion, which is found to be the ground state of CrV- but a low lying excited state of MoV-. Addition of a d delta electron yields the 1 Sigma+ MoV- ground state. Density functional theory calculations of the anions and neutrals were performed to help elucidate the spectroscopic assignments and observed periodic trends.