Substituent effects on gas‐phase homolytic Fe–O and Fe–S bond energies of m‐G‐C6H4OFe(CO)2(η5‐C5H5) and m‐G‐C6H4SFe(CO)2(η5‐C5H5) studied using Hartree–Fock and density functional theory methods

Abstract

The thermochemistry of organometallic complexes in solution and in the gas phase has been an area of increasing research interest. In this paper, the Fe–O and Fe–S homolytic bond dissociation energies [ΔHhomo(Fe–O)'s and ΔHhomo(Fe–S)'s] of two series of meta‐substituted phenoxydicarbonyl(η5‐cyclopentadienyl) iron [m‐G‐C6H4OFp (1)] and (meta‐substituted benzenethiolato)dicarbonyl(η5‐cyclopentadienyl) iron [m‐G‐C6H4SFp (2)] were studied using Hartree–Fock and density functional theory methods with large basis sets. In this study, Fp is (η5‐C5H5)Fe(CO)2, and G are NO2, CN, COMe, CO2Me, CF3, Br, Cl, F, H, Me, MeO, and NMe2. The results show that Tao–Perdew–Staroverov–Scuseria and Minnesota 2006 functionals can provide the best price/performance ratio and accurate predictions of ΔHhomo(Fe–O)'s and ΔHhomo(Fe–S)'s. The polar effects of the meta substituents show that the dominant role to the magnitudes of ΔΔHhomo(Fe–O)'s or ΔΔHhomo(Fe–S)'s. σα·, σc· values for meta substituents are all related to polar effects. Spin‐delocalization effects of the meta substituents in ΔΔHhomo(Fe–O)'s and ΔΔHhomo(Fe–S)'s are small but not necessarily zero. Molecular effects rather than ΔΔHhomo(Fe–O)'s and ΔΔHhomo(Fe–S)'s are more suitable indexes for the overall substituent effects on ΔHhomo(Fe–O)'s and ΔHhomo(Fe–S)'s. The meta substituent effects of meta‐electron‐withdrawing groups on the Fe–S bonds are much stronger than those on the Fe–O bonds. For meta‐electron‐donating groups, the meta substituent effects have the comparable magnitudes between series 1 and 2. ΔΔHhomo(Fe–O)'s (1) and ΔΔHhomo(Fe–S)'s (2) conform to the captodative principle. Insight from this work may help the design of more effective catalytic processes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.