Is There a Quadruple Bond in C2?

Abstract

The chemical structure of the ground state of C2 has been the subject of intense debate after the suggestion that the molecule could exhibit a "fourth" covalent bond. In this paper, we investigate this problem explicitly avoiding all the points of conflict from the previous papers to show that there is no quadruple bond in C2. The generalized product function energy partitioning (GPF-EP) method has been applied to calculate the interference energy (IE) that accounts for the formation of covalent bonds for each bond of the molecule. The IE analysis shows that for the standard σ and π bonds interference exhibits the expected behavior, while for the "fourth" bond interference is a destabilizing factor. To make sure this could not be attributed to a new kind of bond, we performed an equivalent analysis for the (3)Σ(-) excited state of C3 molecule in which similar "bonding" occurs between the two ending carbon atoms. We also show that the difference in force constants of C2 and acetylene can be rationalized in terms of the amount of charge density in the internuclear region by looking at the changes in the overlaps between orbitals along the bond axis.