Pulsed-field ionization electron spectroscopy and conformation of copper-diammonia

Copper-diammonia, Cu(NH3)2, and its deuterated species, Cu(ND3)2, are produced in supersonic molecular beams and studied by pulsed-field ionization zero electron kinetic energy photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio calculations. Structural isomers with a copper atom binding to an ammonia dimer or two ammonia molecules are obtained by the calculations. By comparing the experimental measurements to the theoretical calculations, the neutral and ionic forms of copper-diammonia are determined to be in a doubly bound linear conformation in their ground electronic states. The adiabatic ionization potentials of Cu(NH3)2 and Cu(ND3)2 are measured as 29,532 (5) and 29,313 (5) cm(-1), respectively. The metal-ligand symmetric stretching frequencies are measured to be 436 cm(-1) for Cu+-(NH3)2 and 398 cm(-1) for Cu+-(ND3)2, and the metal-ligand bending frequencies 75,139 cm(-1) for CuCu+-(NH3)2 and 70125 cm(-1) for CuCu+-(ND3)2. Moreover, the dissociation energy of Cu(NH3)2-->CuNH3+NH3 is determined to be 11(3) kcal mol(-1) through a thermodynamic relationship.