Electronic Structure and Optical Spectral Analysis of the MnO42- Anion with Consideration of Site and Jahn-Teller Distortion

The ground state of 3d1 MnO42− was studied by density functional theory (DFT) and complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) methods in terms of a variety of molecular point group structures to ascertain the site and Jahn–Teller (JT) distortion effect. Modeling results from UB3LYP/6-31+G(d) calculations with natural bond orbital analysis show the four Mn–O bonds are coordinate covalent. The one-electron matrix elements from CASSCF(AILFT) (ab initio ligand field theory) with a second order perturbation treatment were used to calculate the parameters of the angular overlap model. These allowed the calculation of JT stabilization energies and first and second order JT coupling constants for MnO42− with C2v and D2d symmetry. Absorption spectra and excited state transition energies were calculated assuming the lattice distorted geometry was C2v with time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) using the unrestricted coulomb-attenuating UCAM-B3LYP density functional and with the spin-adapted spin-flip DFT using the UBH&HLYP density functional, both with the AUG-CC-PVTZ basis set. The mean absolute deviation of the calculations from experimental excited states for the ligand field and ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) bands was better than 0.1 eV. Several new assignments for LMCT excited states were made on the basis of the TDDFT excitation results.