Knowledge Bank

The complex of scandium with 1-phenyl naphthalene (C$\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">16</mrow>}$H$\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">12</mrow>}$) is produced by the reaction of laser-ablated scandium atoms with the vapor of the ligand introduced from a container outside the source chamber. The resulting scandium complex is characterized with pulsed field ionization-zero electron kinetic energy (PFI-ZEKE) electron spectroscopy. The PFI-ZEKE spectrum begins at 37594(5) cm$\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">-1</mrow>}$ and exhibits vibrational intervals of 81, 162, 287, 340, 362, and 398 cm$\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">-1</mrow>}$ in the scandium monocation complex. Through comparison with ab initio and Franck-Condon factor calculations, it is determined that this spectrum arises from a rice-ball like structure. The scandium atom is centered over the bridging carbons between the naphthalene and phenyl group. The phenyl group is rotated about 50 by scandium coordination and bends towards the metal. The 340 cm$\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">-1</mrow>}$ spacing is assigned to the metal-(bridging carbons) symmetric stretch and the other observed intervals to ligand-based vibrations.