The coordination of carbon dioxide to first transition row metal
cations and the insertion reaction of the
metal into one CO bond of carbon dioxide have been studied
theoretically. The geometry and the vibrational
frequencies of the M+−CO2 and
OM+CO structures have been determined using the
hybrid three-parameter
B3LYP density functional approach. Binding energies have also been
determined at the CCSD(T) level
using large basis sets. The linear end-on M+−OCO
structure is the most favorable coordination for
CO2,
due to the electrostatic nature of the bonding. In the inserted
OM+CO structures, the bonding arises from
the
electrostatic interaction between the ground state of OM+
and CO. For the early transition metals (Sc+,
Ti+,
and V+), the insertion reaction is exothermic and the
inserted OM+CO structure is more stable than the
linear
M+−OCO isomer, because of the very strong
MO+ bond that is formed.