Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.101, No.40, 7454-7459, 1997
Dynamics of electron attachment and ionization processes in the CCl4 molecule: An ab initio MO and direct dynamics study
Electron attachment and ionization processes in the CCl4 molecule to form CCl4 radical anion and cation. CCl4 + e(-) (hole) --> CCl4-(CCl4+), have been studied by means of both ab initio MO and direct dynamics calculations. The ab initio calculations of CCl4- show that two conformers of the radical anion CCl4- are obtained for the stable structures: the elongated and compressed structures distorted from Td symmetry of neutral CCl4 due to the Jahn-Teller effect. The elongated structure is more stable by 11.8 kcal/mol relative to the compressed structure at the MP4SDQ/6-31G(d) level. The CCl4+ is unstable relative to its dissociation limit (CCl3+ and Cl atom), The direct dynamics trajectory calculations show that the radical anion CCl4-, formed by a vertical electron attachment: of the CCl4 molecule, leads directly to the elongated form of CCl4-. On the other hand, CCl4+ formed by a vertical ionization directly dissociates to CCl3+ + Cl without an activation barrier. The reaction mechanisms of electron attachment and ionization processes are discussed on the basis of theoretical results.