Structure and Spectroscopic Properties of Hydrocalcium Isocyanide Isomers: Plausible Astronomical Ca-bearing Molecules

Abstract

Recently, the first Ca-bearing molecule discovered in space, calcium isocyanide, CaNC, has been detected in the IRC+10216 circumstellar envelope. Related to CaNC are closed-shell stable molecules of [C, Ca, H, N] composition. One of the isomers with this composition is hydrocalcium isocyanide, HCaNC, which belongs to the hydrometal isocyanide/cyanide group of compounds, among which hydromagnesium isocyanide, HMgNC, is, to date, the only one detected in space. In this work, we have performed a study of the [C, Ca, H, N] isomers that are systems of possible interstellar interest by using quantum theoretical methodologies. The analysis of the relative energies predicts three low-lying isomers: c-HCa–NC (1A'), hydrocalcium isocyanide, HCaNC (1Σ), and hydrocalcium cyanide, HCaCN (1Σ). At the composite level, HCaNC (1Σ) and HCaCN (1Σ) were located 0.87 and 4.84 kcal mol−1, respectively, above the c-HCa–NC (1Σ) isomer. Interconversion processes between these isomers have been studied to analyze their stability. Isomer HCaNC is characterized as a transition state and thus directly isomerizes to the c-HCa–NC minimum. The isomerization process of HCaCN → c-HCa–NC shows a small barrier of about 0.76 kcal mol−1 (~382 K) above HCaCN, at the highest level of theory employed in this work, suggesting that HCaCN could easily isomerize into the most stable isomer, c-HCa–NC. Our results predict two low-lying isomers, namely, c-HCa–NC (1A') and hydrocalcium cyanide, HCaCN (1Σ), as possible candidates for experimental or radioastronomical detection. For these isomers, we provide predictions for their vibrational and rotational spectroscopic parameters that could aid in their eventual characterization in the laboratory or in space.