A computational investigation on the correlation of structure, stability, and reactivity of neutral and charged mono- and di-aluminium doped linear carbon chains (Al1,2C¬1-7)

Abstract

The structure, stability, and reactivity of mono- and di-aluminium substituted carbon clusters Al1,2C1-70, ± were computationally investigated at the B3LYP-D4/def2-TZVPP level of theory. The linear/quasi-linear structures of the clusters were found to be the most stable isomers, except AlC20,+. The calculations on various energy parameters, such as the binding energy, dissociation reaction energy, and second-order difference of energy, were performed for the investigation. Based on the binding energy values, a relative energy parameter was introduced which satisfactorily explained the stability of the clusters obtained from the dissociation reaction channel. The above parameter also agreeably explained the variation of chemical hardness, HOMO-LUMO energy gap, ionization energy, and electron affinity values. The results concluded that AlC2,4,6- , Al2C 2,4,6 clusters with singlet ground states are more stable than the adjacent triplet and odd-carbon clusters. The singlet species AlC3,5,7+ are found to be less stable than the adjacent triplet molecules due to the weak Al-C bond in the structures. The doublet molecules (AlCm, Al2Cm- ) have shown nearly equal stability in a series. The reactivity of Al1,2-doped clusters are found to be higher than the bare carbon chains. The current investigations could be vital to understanding the stability, reactivity, and molecular abundance of the metal-containing carbon chains under combustion and astronomical environments.