Ab initio studies of isocyanatoborane and difluoroisocyanatoborane; bent or linear BNCO chains?
Ab initio calculating at the 3-21G, 6-31G*, 6-31G**, 6-311G*, and 6-311G** Hartree–Fock levels, have been performed on the unknown H2BNCO and F2BNCO molecules in order to establish the geometries of these isoelectronic propadienone analogues. For H2BNCO the double split valence basis sets lead to linear BNCO chains, whereas either a triple split valence basis set, or the inclusion of correlation to second order (MP2/6-31G*) gives trans-bent structures. These have angles at nitrogen of 153.6° (6-311G*) or 149.9° (MP2/6-31G*), with the potential surface for angle bending extremely flat, and 0.5 kJ mol−1 (6-311 G*) or 1.12 kJ mol−1 (MP2/6-31 G*) separating the C2v and Cs structures. For the bent structures there is a small trans-bend (4–6°) at the carbon atom. The F2BNCO molecule is also linear at the 3-21G level, but is, however, already trans-bent (145.6° at nitrogen, 175.9° at carbon) at the 6-31G* Hartree–Fock level; 1.47 kJ mol−1 separates the bent and linear structures. The triple split valence basis set 6-311G* leads to a further decrease in the angle at nitrogen (141.0°), and a similar NCO angle (175.9°), with the bent structure favoured by 3.85 kJ mol−1. MP2/6-31G* calculations give a minimum with an angle at nitrogen of 140.2°, and a bent-linear energy difference of 3.58 kJ mol−1. Key words: ab initio calculations, isocyanatoboranes, structures, quasilinearity, propadienone analogues.