Electron donor-acceptor complexes of I2 with diethyl ether and diethyl sulphide. An ab initio MO study

The charge-transfer complexes of I2 with the n-donors diethyl ether and diethyl sulfide were studied at the Hartree-Fock and MP2 levels. The structures were fully optimized using the 3-21G(∗) basis set as well as with effective core potentials. The calculations consistently yield a C2v structure for the ether-I2 complex, but an unsymmetrical form for the sulfide-I2 complex. A natural bond orbital analysis and the BSSE-corrected complexation energies reveal stronger interactions in the sulfide complex. The computed orbital energies of the monomers and complexes reproduce the trends in experimentally observed vertical ionization potentials.