Spectral Characteristic of Phosgene in External Electric Field

Phosgene is highly toxic, and it plays a role in the depletion of the ozone layer. The ground state geometric structure and spectral characteristic of phosgene in various external electric fields were calculated via the density-functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) with the B3LYP/6-31+G(d) basis set. With external electric field, the structure of phosgene changed significantly. With increasing electric field, the bond lengths of 1C-3Cl and 1C-4Cl increased; the total energy and energy gap initially increased and then decreased, whereas the dipole moment initially decreased and then increased. Most of the IR vibrational frequencies were redshifted. The wavelength of the singlet excited state increased, reflecting a red shift, and the oscillator strengths of most transitions belonged to forbidden transitions. These results are of great significance for studying the dissociation of phosgene in external electric field.