Quantum-chemical ab initio calculations on the donor-acceptor complex pyridine-borabenzene (c5H5N-BC5H5)

Abstract

The adduct of borabenzene (C5H5B) and pyridine (C5H5N) was studied by means of quantum-chemical ab initio and time-dependent density functional theory calculations at different levels of theory. In the fully optimized structure (MP2/6-311++G*) of the free donor-acceptor complex (C2), the C-B-C angle amounts to 120.6°. The planes of the two aromatic rings enclose a torsion angle of ∼40° with a barrier to rotation about the B-N bond of less than 3kcalmol-1 (1kcalmol-1≤4.186kJmol-1). The highest computational level applied in this study (complete basis set limit, coupled cluster with single and double excitations (CCSD)) results in an energy associated with the reaction of borabenzene with pyridine of-52.2kcalmol-1. Natural bond orbital analyses were performed to study the bond between the borabenzene and the pyridine unit of the adduct. The UV-vis spectrum of the adduct was calculated employing time-dependent density functional theory methods and the symmetry-adapted cluster-configuration interaction method. Our calculated electronic excitation spectrum of the pyridine adduct as well as its spectrum of the normal modes qualitatively reproduce the characteristic features of the IR and the UV-vis spectra described by experimentalists and thus allows assignment of the observed absorption bands, which in part agree with those by other authors. © 2014 CSIRO.