Th2O-, Th2Au-, and Th2AuO1,2- Anions: Photoelectron Spectroscopic and Computational Characterization of Energetics and Bonding

The observation and characterization of the anions: Th2O-, Th2Au-, and Th2AuO1,2- is reported. These species were studied through a synergetic combination of anion photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio correlated molecular orbital theory calculations at the CCSD(T) level with large correlation-consistent basis sets. To better understand the energetics and bonding in these anions and their corresponding neutrals, a range of smaller diatomic to tetratomic species were studied computationally. Correlated molecular orbital theory calculations at the CCSD(T) level showed that in most of these cases, there are close-lying anions and neutral clusters with different geometries and spin states and are consistent with the experimentally observed spectra. Thus, comparison of experimentally determined and computationally predicted vertical detachment energies and electron affinities for different optimized geometries and spin states shows excellent agreement to within 0.1 eV. The structures for both the neutrals and anions have a significant ionic component to the bonding because of the large electron affinity of the Au atom and modest ionization potentials for Th-2, Th2O, and Th2O2. The analysis of the bonding for the Th-Th bonds from the molecular orbitals is consistent with this ionic model. The results show that there is a wide variation in the bond distance from 2.7 to 3.5 angstrom for the Th-Th bonds all of which are less than twice the atomic radius of Th of 3.6 angstrom. The bond distances encompass bond orders from 4 to 0. There can be different bond orders for the same bond distance depending on the nature of the ionic bonding suggesting that one may not be able to correlate the bond order with the bond distance in these types of clusters. In addition, the presence of an Au atom may provide a unique probe of the bonding in such clusters because of its ability to accept an electron from clusters with modest ionization potentials.

Automated summary

The observation and characterization of anions Th2O-, Th2Au-, and Th2AuO1,2- was reported using a combination of anion photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio correlated molecular orbital theory calculations. The results showed good agreement between experimentally determined and computationally predicted data for vertical detachment energies and electron affinities. The bonding analysis revealed significant ionic components in the structures of both the neutrals and anions.