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Vibronic transitions and spin-orbit coupling of three-membered metallacycles formed by lanthanide-mediated dehydrogenation of dimethylamine.

Author
Abstract
:

Metal-mediated N-H and C-H bond activation of aliphatic amines is an effective strategy for synthesizing biologically important molecules. Ln (Ln = La and Ce) atom reactions with dimethylamine are carried out in a pulsed-laser vaporization supersonic molecular beam source. A series of dehydrogenation species are observed with time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and the dehydrogenated Ln-containing species in the formula Ln(CHNCH) are characterized by single-photon mass-analyzed threshold ionization (MATI) spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. The theoretical calculations include density functional theory for both Ln species and multiconfiguration self-consistent field and quasi-degenerate perturbation theory for the Ce species. The MATI spectrum of La(CHNCH) consists of a single vibronic band system, which is assigned to the ionization of the doublet ground state of N-methyl-lanthanaaziridine. The MATI spectrum of Ce(CHNCH) displays two vibronic band systems, which are attributed to the ionization of two-pair lowest-energy spin-orbit coupling states of N-methyl-ceraaziridine. Both metallaaziridines are three-membered metallacycles and formed by the thermodynamically and kinetically favorable concerted dehydrogenation of the amino group and one of the methyl groups.

Year of Publication
:
2021
Journal
:
The Journal of chemical physics
Volume
:
155
Issue
:
3
Number of Pages
:
034302
Date Published
:
2021
ISSN Number
:
0021-9606
URL
:
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0059659
DOI
:
10.1063/5.0059659
Short Title
:
J Chem Phys
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