The equilibrium structure of ferrocene

The molecular structures of ferrocene in the eclipsed (equilibrium) and staggered (saddle-point) conformations have been determined by full geometry optimizations at the levels of second-order Moller-Plesset (MP2) theory, coupled-cluster singles-and-doubles (CCSD) theory, and CCSD theory with a perturbative triples correction [CCSD(T)] in a TZV2P + f basis set. Existing experimental results are reviewed. The agreement between the CCSD(T) results and experiment is in all cases excellent; the calculated structure parameters and the barrier to internal rotation of the ligand rings differ from the most accurate experimental values by less than two estimated standard deviations. The CCSD(T) calculations for single-configuration-dominated transition metal complexes such as ferrocene thus appear to have an accuracy comparable to that observed for molecules containing only first- and second-row atoms, and to be of a quality similar to that obtained experimentally. A comparison with previous DFT results indicates that the B3LYP model gives overall the best DFT results, with a deviation of around 2 pm for the metal-carbon distance and smaller errors for the cyclopentadienyl rings.