Four minimum energy structures of HCN–HCCHÞ2 were found in the ab initio calculations.The global minimum is a cyclic structure and it is shown in Fig. 1. The other minima have C2 symmetry axes with one acetylene molecule perpendicular
to the symmetry axis (Fig. 1). These structures can be associated with superpositioning optimum pair structures, which are either T-shaped or linear. On the other hand, the cyclic structure distorts the T-shaped arrangement between each pair in order to achieve three pair interactions versus the two pair interactions in the higher symmetry structures. There are numerous interconversion pathways, and in fact, in searching for minima, a nonplanar transition state of Cs
symmetry was identified for one pathway. provides separation distances and stabilities that are within the same range of differences between
the cc-pVTZ/MP2 and aug-cc-pVTZ/MP2 values;
i.e., the error is of the size of what may be the
errors in cc-pVTZ/MP2 values from lingering basis
set deficiency. However, the MMC stability differences
are in the other direction (undervaluing).
The effect of counterpoise correction [23], isolated
in values collected in Table 1, remains important
even with the aug-cc-pVTZ basis. The results of
the DFT calculations are about midway between
cc-pVDZ/MP2 and cc-pVTZ/MP2 results.