Abstract

Context: The CO2 activation by low-valent group 14 catalysts encompasses the rupture of varied covalent bonds in a single transition state through a concerted pathway. The bond between the central main group atom and the hydride in the complex is elongated to trigger the formation of the C–H bond with CO2 accompanied by the concomitant formation of the E–O bond between the complex and CO2 to lead the corresponding formate product. Prior studies have established that besides the apolar nature of CO2, its initial interaction with the complex is primarily governed by electrostatic interactions. Notably, other stabilizing interactions and the transfer of charge between catalysts and CO2 during the initial phases of the reaction have been ignored. In this study, we have quantified the non-covalent interactions and charge transfer that facilitate the activation of CO2 by group 14 main group complex. Our findings indicate that electrostatic interactions predominantly stabilize the complex and CO2 in the reactant region. However, induction energy becomes the main stabilizing force as the reaction progresses towards the transition state, surpassing electrostatics. Induction contributes about 50% to the stabilization at the transition state, followed by electrostatics (40%) and dispersion interactions (10%). Atomic charges calculated with the minimal basis iterative stockholder (MBIS) method reveal larger charge transfer for the back-side reaction path in which CO2 approaches the catalysts in contrast to the front-side approach. Notably, it was discovered that a minor initial bending of CO2 to approximately 176∘ initiates the charge transfer process for all systems. Furthermore, our investigation of group 14 elements demonstrates a systematic reduction in both activation energies and charge transfer to CO2 while descending in group 14. Methods: All studied reactions were characterized along the reaction coordinate obtained with the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) methodology at the M06-2X/6-31 g(d,p) level of theory. Gibbs free energy in toluene was computed using electronic energies at the DLPNO-CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ-SSD(E) level of theory. Vibrational and translational entropy corrections were applied to provide a more accurate description of the obtained Gibbs free energies. To better characterize the changes in the reaction coordinate for all reactions, the reaction force analysis (RFA) has been employed. It enables the partition of the reaction coordinate into the reactant, transition state, and product regions where different stages of the mechanism occur. A detailed characterization of the main non-covalent driving forces in the initial stages of the activation of CO2 by low-valent group 14 complexes was performed using symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT). The SAPT0-CT/def2-SVP method was employed for these computations. Charge transfer descriptors based on atomic population using the MBIS scheme were also obtained to complement the SAPT analyses.