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Michal Straka

Publications and source records attributed to Michal Straka.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Density functional calculations of 3He chemical shift in endohedral helium fullerenes: Neutral, anionic, and di-helium species.

We report density functional calculations of 3He nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shifts in a series of experimentally known endohedral helium fullerenes, He(n)@Cm(q) (n = 1, 2; m = 60, 70, 76, 78; q = 0, 6-), including for the first time anionic and di-helium species. Despite the lack of dispersion in the density functional model, the results are in promising agreement with experiment. Density functional theory performs better than Hartree-Fock for the anionic systems. In the di-helium species confined in the small C60 cage, besides the atomic displacements from the center position, the direct He-He interactions contribute to the 3He shift.

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Can weakly coordinating anions stabilize mercury in its oxidation state +IV?

While the thermochemical stability of gas-phase HgF4 against F2 elimination was predicted by accurate quantum chemical calculations more than a decade ago, experimental verification of "truly transition-metal" mercury(IV) chemistry is still lacking. This work uses detailed density functional calculations to explore alternative species that might provide access to condensed-phase Hg(IV) chemistry. The structures and thermochemical stabilities of complexes Hg(IV)X4 and Hg(IV)F2X2 (X- = AlF4-, Al2F7-, AsF6-, SbF6-, As2F11-, Sb2F11-, OSeF5-, OTeF5-) have been assessed and are compared with each other, with smaller gas-phase HgX4 complexes, and with known related noble gas compounds. Most species eliminate F2 exothermically, with energies ranging from only about -60 kJ mol(-1) to appreciable -180 kJ mol(-1). The lower stability of these species compared to gas-phase HgF4 is due to relatively high coordination numbers of six in the resulting Hg(II) complexes that stabilize the elimination products. Complexes with AsF6 ligands appear more promising than their SbF6 analogues, due to differential aggregation effects in the Hg(II) and Hg(IV) states. HgF2X2 complexes with X- = OSeF5- or OTeF5- exhibit endothermic fluorine elimination and relatively weak interactions in the Hg(II) products. However, elimination of the peroxidic (OEF5)2 coupling products of these ligands provides an alternative exothermic elimination pathway with energies between -120 and -130 kJ mol(-1). While all of the complexes investigated here thus have one exothermic decomposition channel, there is indirect evidence that the reactions should exhibit nonnegligible activation barriers. A number of possible synthetic pathways towards the most interesting condensed-phase Hg(IV) target complexes are proposed.

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Understanding structure and bonding in early actinide 6d(0)5f0 MX6q (M = Th-Np; X = H, F) complexes in comparison with their transition metal 5d0 analogues.

The relationship between structure and bonding in actinide 6d(0)5f(0) MX(6)(q)() complexes (M = Th, Pa, U, Np; X = H, F; q = -2,-1, 0, +1) has been studied, based on density functional calculations with accurate relativistic actinide pseudopotentials. The detailed comparison of these prototype systems with their 5d(0) transition metal analogues (M = Hf, Ta, W, Re) reveals in detail how the 5f orbitals modify the structural preferences of the actinide complexes relative to the transition metal systems. Natural bond orbital analyses on the hydride complexes indicate that 5f orbital involvement in sigma-bonding favors classical structures based on the octahedron, while d orbital contributions to sigma-bonding favor symmetry lowering. The respective roles of f and d orbitals are reversed in the case of pi-bonding, as shown for the fluoride complexes.

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Spin-orbit-induced anomalous pH-dependence in (1)H NMR spectra of Co(III) amine complexes: a diagnostic tool for structure elucidation.

The pH-dependent (1)H NMR characteristics of a series of Co(III)-(polyamin)-aqua and Co(III)-(polyamin)-(polyalcohol) complexes, [Co(tach)(ino-kappa(3)-O(1,3,5))](3+) (1(3+)), [Co(tach)(ino-kappa(3)-Omicron(1,2,6))](3+) (2(3+)), [Co(tach)(taci-kappa-Nu(1)-kappa(2)-O(2,6))](3+) (3(3+)), [Co(ditame)(H(2)O)](3+) (4(3+)), and [Co(tren)(H(2)O)(2)](3+) (5(3+)), were studied in D(2)O by means of titration experiments (tach = all-cis-cyclohexane-1,3,5-triamine, ino = cis-inositol, taci = 1,3,5-triamino-1,3,5-trideoxy-cis-inositol, tren = tris(2-aminoethyl)amine, ditame = 2,2,6,6-tetrakis-(aminomethyl)-4-aza-heptane). A characteristic shift was observed for H(-C) hydrogen atoms in the alpha-position of a coordinated amino group upon deprotonation of a coordinated oxygen donor. For a cis-H-C-N-Co-O-H arrangement, deprotonation of the oxygen donor resulted in an additional shielding (shift to lower frequency) of the H(-C) proton, whereas for a trans-H-C-N-Co-O-H arrangement, deprotonation resulted in a deshielding (shift to higher frequency). The effect appears to be of rather general nature: it is observed for primary (1(3+)-5(3+)), secondary (4(3+)), and tertiary (5(3+)) amino groups, and for the deprotonation of an alcohol (1(3+)-3(3+)) or a water (4(3+), 5(3+)) ligand. Spin-orbit-corrected density functional calculations show that the high-frequency deprotonation shift for the trans-position is largely caused by a differential cobalt-centered spin-orbit effect on the hydrogen nuclear shielding. This effect is conformation dependent due to a Karplus-type behavior of the spin-orbit-induced Fermi-contact shift and thus only significant for an approximately antiperiplanar H-C-N-Co arrangement. The differential spin-orbit contribution to the deprotonation shift in the trans-position arises from the much larger spin-orbit shift for the protonated than for the deprotonated state. This is in turn due to a trans-effect of the deprotonated (hydroxo or alkoxo) ligand, which weakens the trans Co-N bond and thereby interrupts the Fermi-contact mechanism for transfer of the spin-orbit-induced spin polarization to the hydrogen nucleus in question. The unexpectedly large long-range spin-orbit effects found here for 3d metal complexes are traced back to small energy denominators in the perturbation theoretical expressions of the spin-orbit shifts.

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One metal and forty nitrogens. Ab initio predictions for possible new high-energy pentazolides.

High-energy nitrogen-rich pentazolides of groups 6 and 13-16 are studied theoretically. Many of them have experimentally known azide analogues. Our highest nitrogen-to-element ratio of 40:1 is achieved in the systems [M(N5)8](2-) (M=Cr, Mo, W). The thermodynamic and kinetic stability of the studied systems grows with the negative charge on the system and is highest for tetra-pentazolides and hexa-pentazolides of B, Al, and Si. Systems such as B(N5)4- or Si(N5)6(2-) are examples of the most stable candidates for these new species. N(N5)2- is a candidate for a new all-nitrogen system. Neutral and positive systems were less stable. Pentazole derivatives of "dinuclear" C2Hn and N2Hn systems were investigated and were found to be of comparable stability as their "mononuclear" analogues. Pentazole derivatives of benzene, the C6H(6-n)(N5)n (n=2, 3, 6) systems, have a similar stability as the experimentally known phenylpentazole. A borazine analogue, N3B3H3(N5)3 is predicted to be one of the most stable systems of this family.

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