From acetylene complexes to vinylidene structures: The GeC(2) H(2) system

The expansion of germanium chemistry in recent years has been rapid. In anticipation of new experiments, a systematic theoretical investigation of the eight low lying electronic singlet GeC(2) H(2) stationary points is carried out. This research used ab initio self-consistent-field (SCF), coupled cluster (CC) with single and double excitations (CCSD), and CCSD with perturbative triple excitations [CCSD(T)] levels of theory and a variety of correlation-consistent polarized valence cc-pVXZ and cc-pVXZ-DK (Douglas-Kroll) (where X = D, T, and Q) basis sets. At all levels of theory used in this study, the global minimum of the GeC(2) H(2) potential energy surface (PES) is confirmed to be 1-germacyclopropenylidene (Ge-1S). Among the eight singlet stationary points, seven structures are found to be local minima and one structure (Ge-6S) to be a second-order saddle point. For the seven singlet minima, the energy ordering and energy differences (in kcal mol(-1) , with the zero-point vibrational energy corrected values in parentheses) at the cc-pVQZ-DK (Douglas-Kroll) CCSD(T) level of theory are predicted to be 1-germacyclopropenylidene (Ge-1S) [0.0 (0.0)] < vinylidenegermylene (Ge-3S) [13.9 (13.5)] < ethynylgermylene (Ge-2S) [17.9 (14.8)] < Ge-7S [37.4 (33.9)] < syn-3-germapropenediylidene (Ge-8S) [41.2 (37.9)] < germavinylidenecarbene (Ge-5S) [66.6 (61.6)] < nonplanar germacyclopropyne (Ge-4S) [67.8 (63.3)]. These seven isomers are all well below the dissociation limit to Ge ((3) P) + C(2) H(2) (X (1) Σ g+). This system seems particularly well poised for matrix isolation infrared (IR) experiments.