Theoretical spectroscopic parameters for the low-lying states of the second-row transition metal hydrides

Abstract

Spectroscopic parameters (De,re,μe) are determined for the second-row transition metal hydrides using large valence basis sets in conjunction with relativistic effective core potentials (RECPs). All-electron calculations are also performed for YH and AgH to calibrate the RECP results. Electron correlation is incorporated using singles-plus-doubles configuration interaction (SDCI), the coupled pair functional (CPF) method, and a modified version (MCPF) of CPF. Although similarities exist between the bonding in the first- and second-row transition metal hydrides, the greater overlap of the d orbitals in the second row with the hydrogen 1s orbital, tends to lead to larger dissociation energies and some changes in the relative ordering of the states. For example, the ground state of ZrH is predicted to be a 2Δ state whose bonding involves 4d–5s hybrid orbitals, whereas in TiH the ground state is a 4Φ state with primarily 4s–1s bonding. The bonding in the second-row transition metal hydrides involves a mixture of all three atomic asymptotes, 4dn5s2, 4dn+15s1, and 4dn+2, whereas contribution from the 3dn+2 asymptote is unimportant in the first-row TM hydrides. However, the bonding is generally much simpler to describe in the second-row as compared with the first-row TM hydrides, and the spectroscopic parameters are much less sensitive to the level of correlation treatment.