Loading…

Benchmark study of molecules with large-amplitude ring-twisting motion: accurate equilibrium structure of succinic anhydride from gas electron diffraction data and coupled-cluster computations

The gas electron diffraction (GED) study of succinic anhydride (dihydro-2,5-furandione) is used as a benchmark example for the reliable determination of the structure of floppy molecules with saturated non-rigid ring. According to results of B3LYP calculations, the molecule has a planar skeleton (C...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Structural chemistry 2015-12, Vol.26 (5-6), p.1481-1488
Main Authors: Vogt, Natalja, Altova, Ekaterina P., Ksenafontov, Denis N., Rykov, Anatolii N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The gas electron diffraction (GED) study of succinic anhydride (dihydro-2,5-furandione) is used as a benchmark example for the reliable determination of the structure of floppy molecules with saturated non-rigid ring. According to results of B3LYP calculations, the molecule has a planar skeleton (C 2v total symmetry), whereas the MP2 optimized structure has a non-planar ring with the torsional angle φ (C–C–C–C) of up to 11° (C 2 symmetry). It has been revealed that the increase in the quality of ab initio calculations up to CCSD(T) level and the enlargement of basis set up to quadruple- ζ size decrease the non-planarity of the molecular skeleton, which is approximated to be planar in the best-estimated ab initio structure. The semiexperimental equilibrium structure ( r e se ) has been determined from the GED data with the application of the so-called dynamic (pseudo-conformer) model describing the large-amplitude ring-twisting motion. Vibrational corrections Δ( r a  −  r e ) to the experimental internuclear distances have been calculated from the B3LYP/cc-pVTZ quadratic and cubic force constants. The best-estimated ab initio structure agrees well with the r e se structure. This fact points to the reliability and a high accuracy of both experimental data and applied theory.
ISSN:1040-0400
1572-9001
DOI:10.1007/s11224-015-0654-0