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Published on: December 16, 2013
Structural diversity of copper-CO2 complexes: infrared spectra and structures of [Cu(CO2)n]- clusters
Benjamin J Knurr1, J Mathias Weber
1JILA and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado , Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States.
Abstract:
We present infrared spectra of [Cu(CO2)n](-) (n = 2-9) clusters in the wavenumber range 1600-2400 cm(-1). The CO stretching modes in this region encode the structural nature of the cluster core and are interpreted with the aid of density functional theory. We find a variety of core species in [Cu(CO2)n](-) clusters, but the dominant core structure is a [Cu(CO2)2](-) core where the two CO2 ligands are bound to the Cu atom in a bidentate fashion. We compare the results of [Cu(CO2)n](-) clusters to those of other [M(CO2)n](-) clusters (M = Au, Ag, Co, Ni) to establish trends of how the metal-CO2 interaction depends on the metal partner.
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