Dominance of eclipsed ferrocene conformer in solutions revealed by the IR fingerprint spectral splitting

A combined high-resolution Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of ferrocene (Fc) and density functional theory (DFT) based quantum mechanical calculations confirmed the dominance of the eclipsed Fc conformer in the fingerprint region of 400-500 cm-1. The IR spectra of Fc were measured in solutions with a number of non-polar solvents such as acetonitrile, dichloromethane, tetrahydrofuran and dioxane. The measurements agree well with the earlier IR spectra of Lippincott and Nelson (1958) as well as the most recent IR spectral measurement in dichloromethane solution of Duhovic and Diaconescu (2013). All experimental measurements in the solutions unambiguously exhibit an IR spectral splitting of ca. 15 cm-1 in the 480-500 cm-1 region. The DFT based B3LYP/m6-31G(d) quantum mechanical calculations using implicit solvent models in this study indicates that only the ground electronic state of the eclipsed (D5h) Fc splits in the IR fingerprint region of ca. 500 cm-1. The IR spectral splitting characterises the centre Fe metal related vibrations of the eclipsed Fc, in agreement with our previous finding in gas phase [Mohammadi et al, 2012]. The present study further suggests that the effects of solvents on the IR spectra of Fc in this region are small and the solvent model effects are also small but the solute molecular density (SMD) model seems to produce the most accurate IR spectrum in the region of 400-600 cm-1 of Fc without scaling the calculated results.