The Unpredictability of Research Directions and the Synergy between Theory and Experiment in Physical Organic Chemistry
Research projects in physical organic chemistry can go in unpredictable directions. One such project, described herein, began with the discovery of a large, imaginary, calculated vibrational frequency and soon led to the prediction that cyclobutanetetraone (CO)4 had a triplet ground state. Molecular orbital (MO) theory provided the understanding of why (CO)4 was calculated to have a planar triplet ground state and why, in contrast, (SiO)4 was calculated to have a tetrahedral singlet ground state. Qualitative MO theory, as well as calculations, also predicted that (CO)3, (CO)5, and (CO)6 should all be found to have singlet ground states. Testing experimentally these predictions about (CO)n molecules, n=3 6, led to a very fruitful collaboration with Dr. Xuebin Wang, who obtained the negative ion photoelectron (NIPE) spectra of the radical anions of these four molecules and also of (CS)4. Assignments of the signals in these five NIPE spectra required computing the vibrational progressions in them. The necessary acquisition of the ability to simulate the signals in NIPE spectra resulted in the successful analysis of the very complex spectrum of meta benzoquinone (MBQ) radical anion, which Dr. Wang had already obtained and published. Analysis of this spectrum confirmed the prediction, made more than 20 years previously, that the ordering of the two lowest singlet states in MBQ was reversed from that in meta benzoquinodimethane (MBQDM) The research described herein illustrates not only the unpredictability of where some research projects will eventually lead, but also the synergy between calculations and experiments in physical organic chemistry.