Conformations and Energetics of Sulfur and Selenium Diimides

The geometries and energetics of different conformations of sulfur and selenium diimides E(NR)2 (E = S, Se; R = H, Me, tBu, C6H3Me2-2,6, SiMe3) have been studied by using various ab initio and DFT molecular orbital techniques. The syn,syn conformation is found to be most stable for parent E(NH)2 but in general the preferred molecular conformation for substituted chalcogen diimides is syn,anti. In the case of E(NH)2 the present calculations further confirm that syn,syn and syn,anti conformations lie energetically close to each other. From the three different theoretical methods used, B3PW91/6-31G* proved to be the most suitable method for predicting the geometries of chalcogen diimides. The optimized geometrical parameters are in a good agreement with all available experimental data. While qualitative energy ordering of the different conformations is independent of the level of theory, the quantitative energy differences are dependent on the method used. The performance and reliability of higher-level ab initio calculations and DFT methods using large basis sets were tested and compared with experimental information where available. All of the higher-level ab inito methods give very similar results but the use of large basis sets with the B3PW91 method does not increase the reliability of the results. The combination of CCSD(T)/cc-pVDZ with the B3PW91/6-31G* optimized geometries is found to be the method of choice to study energetic properties of chalcogen diimides.