Cr(CO)6 photochemistry: Semi-classical study of UV absorption spectral intensities and dynamics of photodissociation

The UV absorption spectrum of Cr(CO)(6) (chromium hexacarbonyl) in gas phase is investigated by theoretical methods with focus on the absorption intensities. It is shown that in spite of good predictions for the excitation energies, the most frequently employed methods for excited-state calculations produce poor predictions for oscillator strengths and absorption cross sections. In particular, time-dependent DFT predicts relative intensities for the two main spectral bands to be up to five times larger than the experimental results depending on the functional. The best results are obtained by a multireference configuration interaction method based on DFT (DFT/MRCI). Spectral shoulders caused by vibronic-coupling absorption are assigned based on symmetry-restricted spectrum simulations. The dynamics of Cr(CO)(6) photodissociation was also considered at TDDFT/B3LYP level. The estimated time constants for the Cr(CO)(6) relaxation and dissociation are in excellent agreement with experimental values. The time constant for internal conversion, however, is longer than the experimentally observed by factor 2, presumably due to an underestimation of the experimental analysis. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3582914]