Extensions of the applicability of the MMX molecular modelling system to determination of barriers to rotation of π-bonded ligands
The commercially available molecular mechanics package PCMODEL, which has been shown to be very useful for determining conformational energy profiles for rotation of σ-bonded ligands, cannot be utilized to determine barriers to rotation of π-bonded ligands because of limitations in the way the π-bonding interactions are defined. This paper describes a partially successful modification of the dihedral driver of PCMODEL that makes possible reasonable calculations of the conformational energy profiles for rotation of the π-bonded arene ligands in the compounds (η6-arene)Cr(CO)2(PPh3) (arene = C6H6, C6Me6) and of the π-bonded ethylene ligands in [PtCl3(η2-CH2=CH2)]− and [(η5-C5H5)Re(NO)(PPh3)(η2-CH2=CH2)]+. The steric barriers to ethylene rotation in the latter two complexes were found to be small relative to the electronic barriers to ligand rotation. Keywords: molecular mechanics, olefin rotation, conformational energy profile.