C4N:: The first CnN radical with stable cyclic isomers

The potential-energy surface of the interstellar molecule C4N is explored at the B3LYP/6-311G(d) level of theory. Thirteen isomers including the linear, three-membered ring, four-membered ring, A-like, Y-like, and cage-like structures are located as minima connected by 23 interconversion transition states. The structures of the most relevant isomers and transition states are further optimized at the QCISD/6-311G(d) level followed by single-point energy calculations at the MP4SDTQ, CCSD(T), and QCISD(T) levels with the 6-311G(2df) basis set. At the CCSD(T)/6-311G(2df)//QCISD/6-311G(d) level, the lowest-lying isomer is a linear structure CCCCN 1 followed by a CCC three-membered ring structure 4 with exocyclic CCN bonding that lies only 2.8 kcal/mol higher. The third and fourth low-lying isomers possess a CCC three-membered ring structure 5 with exocyclic CNC bonding at 21.4 kcal/mol and a linear structure CCCNC 2 at 23.4 kcal/mol, respectively. All the four isomers 1, 2, 4, and 5 and another high-lying isomer 3 with a linear CCNCC structure at 62.5 kcal/mol are shown to have considerable kinetic stability towards isomerization and dissociation. Thus, all the five isomers may be experimentally observable. Possible formation of these five stable C4N isomers in interstellar space is discussed. Finally, our calculations show that the Moller-Plesset methods fail to predict even qualitatively the energetic properties between the four low-lying isomers 1, 2, 4, and 5, in comparison with the QCISD and CCSD results. This paper indicates that C4N may be the first interstellar molecule with stable low-lying cyclic isomers among the CnN radical series to be detectable in near future. The results presented in this paper may provide useful information for future laboratory and interstellar identification of various C4N isomers. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.