Iron, cobalt and Nickel -ligand bonding in metallocene: Differentiation between bonds Stability and reactivity

Abstract

The electronic structure and geometry optimization of ferrocene, cobaltocene and nickelocene molecules using DFT/B3LYP with the basis set of 6-31G (d) calculations. The Eigen values, Eigen vector and population analysis of the molecules show that the first 13 molecular orbitals in ferrocene, 12 in cobaltocene and 14 in nickelocene have contribution from 2pzorbitals of carbon of (C5H5)− and4s,4pand 3dorbitals of iron, cobalt or nickel, respectively. We found that the extents of involvement of metal orbitals in the three cases are different. In ferrocene the maximum involvement out of 4s and 4porbitals in the order 4pz >4py >4s > 4pxand out of 3d orbitals the order of involvement is 3dyz >3dxz >3d2z>3dx2−y2>3dxy. The involvement of corresponding orbital in cobaltocene with respect to the 4sand 4porbitals is in the order of 4s >4pz >4py >4pxand in 3d orbitals the order is 3dx2−y2>3dxz >3d2z>3dx2−y2 and in the nickelocene molecule it is 4py >4p>4s >4pz and in 3d orbitals the order is 3dyz >3dx2−y2>3dxy >3dxz >3d2z. The total involvement of 3d, 4s and 4porbitals of metal and 2pz orbitals of the ten carbon atoms of both ligands of (C5H5) −in ferrocene, cobaltocene and nickelocene respectively are 42.2528, 40.2388 and 38.3776