HYDROGEN MOLECULE INTERACTION WITH CpCr(CO)3 CATALYST

Abstract

The hydrogen molecule interaction with CpCr (CO)3 catalyst has been studied using the B3LYP, B86 functionals and the 6-311++G** , LACV3P basis sets. The best results in the testing calculations of the analyzed reaction have been obtained by using the B86/6-311++G** DFT version giving quite good agreement between experimental and theoretical calculated enthalpies. The dispersion corrected DFT Grimme’s and Head-Gordon and coworkers’functionals have been attempted without any improvement of the results. The free energies of the initial reactants, transition states, intermediate compounds and fi nal products of the typical six-ring bond modifi cation mechanism have been calculated. The energy barriersof the reaction pathways are too high in the DFT approximation.

Keywords

• catalysis
• electronic structure
• DFT methods
• reaction mechanisms