Abstract

La atom reactions with 1-butyne and 2-butyne are carried out in a laser-vaporization molecular beam source. Both reactions yield the same La-hydrocarbon products from the dehydrogenation and carbon-carbon bond cleavage and coupling of the butynes. The dehydrogenated species La(C4H4) is characterized with mass-analyzed threshold ionization (MATI) spectroscopy and quantum chemical computations. The MATI spectra of La(C4H4) produced from the two reactions exhibit two identical transitions, each consisting of a strong origin band and several vibrational intervals. The two transitions are assigned to the ionization of two isomers: La(η4–CH2CCCH2) (Iso A) and La(η4–CH2CHCCH) (Iso B). The ground electronic states are 2A1 (C2v) for Iso A and 2A (C1) for Iso B. The ionization of the doublet state of each isomer removes a La 6s-based electron and results in a 1A1 ion of Iso A and a 1A ion of Iso B. The formation of Iso A from 2-butyne and Iso B from 1-butyne involves the addition of La to the C≡C triple bond, the activation of two C(sp3)–H bonds, and concerted elimination of a H2 molecule. The formation of Iso A from 1-butyne and Iso B from 2-butyne involves the isomerization of the two butynes to 1,2-butadiene in addition to the concerted H2 elimination.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-10-2017

Notes/Citation Information

Published in The Journal of Chemical Physics, v. 147, issue 6, 064303, p. 1-9.

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The following article appeared in The Journal of Chemical Physics, v. 147, issue 6, 064303, p. 1-9 and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4997567.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4997567

Funding Information

We are grateful for the financial support from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry (Chemical Structure, Dynamics, and Mechanisms, Grant No. CHE-1362102).

Related Content

See supplementary material for the geometries of La(η4–CH2CCCH2), La(η4–CH2CHCCH), and La(η3–CHCCCH3) in each of the lowest-energy spin states, the energies of their excited doublet and singlet states, and the energies of the stationary points along the reaction coordinates for the formation of La(η4–CH2CCCH2) and La(η4–CH2CHCCH).

La_Butynes-supplement-JCP.pdf (165 kB)
Supplementary Material

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