Structure of the indole-benzene dimer revisited

The structure of the indole-benzene dimer has been investigated using experimental techniques, namely, UV spectroscopy and infrared-ultraviolet (IR/UV) double resonance spectroscopy, combined with quantum chemical calculations such as MP2 and dispersion corrected DFT methods. The red shift of the indole N-H stretch frequency in the dimer provides direct evidence that the experimentally observed indole-benzene dimer is an N-H···π bound hydrogen bonded complex. Theoretical investigations suggest that the potential energy surface (PES) of the complex is rather flat along the coordinate describing the tilt angle between the molecular planes of indole and benzene, with several minima of similar energies, namely, parallel displaced (PD), right-angle T-shaped (T), and other intermediate structures which can be categorized as tilted T-shaped (T') and tilted parallel displaced (PD') structures. Three different computational methods, namely, RI-MP2, RI-B97-D, and PBE1-DCP, are used to arrive at a new structural assignment after assessing their performance in predicting the structure of the pyrrole dimer, for which accurate experimental data are available. By comparing the computed IR spectra of PD, T, and T'/PD' structures with the experimental IR spectrum, the tilted T-shaped (T') structure was assigned to the indole-benzene dimer. The empirically dispersion-corrected functionals (RI-B97-D and PBE1-DCP) correctly reproduce the experimental IR spectrum whereas the popular post-Hartree-Fock, MP2 method gives disappointing results. These results are also in agreement with the experimental dissociation energy (D(0)) reported in the literature. The N-H stretch frequency of the indole-benzene dimer has been found to be a more pertinent parameter for the structural assignment than the dissociation energy (D(0)).