Quantum-Chemical Consideration of Al₂M₂ Tetranuclear Metal Clusters (M–3d-Element): Molecular/Electronic Structures and Thermodynamics

Quantum-chemical calculation of most important parameters of molecular and electronic structures of tetra-nuclear (pd) metal clusters having Al2M2 composition, where M = Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, or Zn (bond lengths, bond and torsion angles), and HOMO and LUMO of these compounds by means of DFT OPBE/QZVP method, have been carried out. It has been found that, for each of these metal clusters, an existence of rather large amount of structural isomers different substantially in their total energy, occurs. It has been noticed that molecular structures of metal clusters of the given type differ significantly between them in terms of geometric parameters, as well as in geometric form, wherein the most stable modifications of metal clusters considered are similar between themselves in geometric form. In addition, the standard thermodynamic parameters of formation of metal clusters considered here, and namely standard enthalpy ΔfH0(298 K), entropy Sf0(298 K), and Gibbs’ energy ΔfG0(298 K) of formation for these metal clusters, were calculated.