Electronic structure of the alkyne-bridged dicobalt hexacarbonyl complex Co2 μ-C2H2 (CO)6:: Evidence for singlet diradical character and implications for metal-metal bonding

A series of ab initio calculations are presented on the alkyne-bridged dicobalt hexacarbonyl cluster Co-2 mu-C2H2 (CO)(6), indicating that this compound has substantial multireference character, which we interpret as evidence of singlet diradical behavior. As a result, standard theoretical methods such as restricted Hartree-Fock (RHF) or Kohn-Sham (RKS) density functional theory cannot properly describe this compound. We have therefore used complete active space (CAS) methods to explore the bonding in and spectroscopic properties of Co-2 mu-C2H2 (CO)(6). CAS methods identify significant population of a Co-Co antibonding orbital, along with Co-pi* back-bonding, and a relatively large singlet-triplet energy splitting. Analysis of the electron density and related quantities, such as energy densities and atomic overlaps, indicates a small but significant amount of covalent bonding between cobalt centers.