Experimental evaluation of the stabilization of the COT orbitals by 4f orbitals in COT₂Ce using a Hubbard model

Significant orbital mixing is rare in lanthanide complexes because of the limited radial extent of the 4f orbitals, which results in a generally small stabilization due to 4f orbital interactions. Nevertheless, even a small amount of additional stabilization could enhance lanthanide separations. One lanthanide complex in which orbital mixing has been extensively studied both experimentally and computationally is cerocene, COT₂Ce, where COT is cyclooctatetraene. This compound has a singlet ground state with a low-lying, triplet excited state. Previous fluorescence studies on trimethylsilyl-substituted cerocenes indicate the triplet state is 0.4 eV higher in energy than the singlet state. In addition, computational studies predict that the triplet is 0.3 to 1 eV higher in energy than the singlet. The synthesis of highly pure COT₂Ce by Walter and Andersen allowed its physical properties to be accurately measured. Using these measurements, we evaluate the stabilization of the 4f orbitals using two, independent approaches. A Hubbard model is used to evaluate the stabilization of the ground state due to orbital mixing. This stabilization, which is also the singlet-triplet gap, is -0.29 eV using this model. This gap was also from the temperature independent paramagnetism of COT₂Ce, which yielded a value of -0.32 eV.