Electronic structure and spectroscopic properties of some low-lying electronic states of neutral and ionic species CN and CN−

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present work provides Potential Energy Curves (PECs) of both cyano radical CN and cyanide anion CN − up to the third asymptote of dissociation out of ab initio calculations. The [MRCI+Q] method is the level of theory used here and we have associated it with the Dunning basis set AV6Z (Augmented correlation-consistent polarised Valence sextet Zeta) for geometry optimisation of our systems. Electronic configurations of the states of the two species were explored and based on these configurations and the relative positions of the PECs of CN − against those of the neutral radical CN, stable and metastable states have been found and exhibited. The calculated electron affinity here that proves itself to be positive and the position of the X 1 Σ + state against its corresponding neutral parent state ( X 2 Σ + ) from which it derives led to confirm that this state is a long-lived and stable ground state of the cyanide anion CN − . Spectroscopic constants of both ground and low-lying excited states are calculated and exhibited in this work.