J.R. Durig et al. / Journal of Molecular Structure 875 (2008) 406–418
415
used are list in Table 7 with the internal coordinate listed in
Table 5 for determining the PEDs. In addition to these
listed symmetry coordinates, we also utilized comparable
ones for a slightly pyramidal bonded nitrogen atom.
This assignment then requires the spectral data from the
matrix of the species B which was obtained from raising
the temperature of the matrix to the 32–40 K range to be
compared to the spectrum of the gas.
Of the two previous investigations [7,21] of the vibra-
tional modes of H2NPF2 the more complete study [7] uti-
lized the infrared spectra of the gas, amorphous and
crystalline solids, and Raman spectra of the liquid and
crystalline solid for making the vibrational assignment.
For the amorphous solid there was a reasonable correspon-
dence of bands observed in the gas with those in the spec-
trum of solid except for a fundamental assigned at
315 cmꢀ1 in the gas which was assigned at 355 in the liquid
and 358 cmꢀ1 in the solid. In the other study [21], the infra-
red spectra of H214NPF2 was investigated in N2 matrix at
10 K which was then warmed to 32–40 K where a complete
conversion was observed from a form A to form B in about
20 min. Shorter periods of time resulted in the observation
of both forms with neither being perturbed by the presence
of the other. Also, these observations did not appear to be
effected by the concentrations of the sample in the matrix
which was varied from 1000:1 to 100:1 by using the
pulsed-deposition technique. In both of these studies there
is essential agreement for the assignments of the two NH2
stretches, the NH2 deformation, and the NH2 rock (A0) but
most of the other assignments differ significantly. There-
fore, our emphases are on the skeletal modes although
there is some difficulty in the choice of the band centers
for the NH2 (also ND2) modes (Figs. 1 and 2) where the
A0 modes for the planar PNH2 moiety give rise to A, C
or A/C-type hybrid contours, all of which should have very
distinct Q-branches. However, as can be seen from the
spectra, there are a multitude of Q-branches on both
NH2 as well as ND2 stretches and we have chosen the
strongest Q-branch in each case as the fundamental.
There are four fundamentals predicted (Table 1) in the
790–940 cmꢀ1 region with only the PF2 antisymmetric
stretch (A00) giving rise to the B-type band contour with
an expected distinctive minimum. As can be seen from
the predicted (Fig. 3) intensities for both of the infrared
bands and Raman lines there is little information from
these predictions for choosing the band centers for three
of these fundamentals (Fig. 1). In the infrared spectrum
of the gas (Fig. 1), there are two relatively strong maxima
but it is difficult to pick out the third band center (mini-
mum). From the infrared spectrum of the matrix isolated
sample (species A), only one weak band is reported [21]
at 797 cmꢀ1 where two fundamentals are expected. The
breadth of the 794 cmꢀ1 gas phase band could contain
two fundamentals particularly since the predicted differ-
ence in the frequencies of the two PF2 stretching vibrations
is only 16 cmꢀ1. By comparing the frequencies for this
group of bands observed in the spectra of the H215NPF2
and D2NPF2 (Fig. 4), we have made the following assign-
ments for the normal species in the gas phase: NH2 rock
(952 cmꢀ1), NP stretch (874 cmꢀ1), PF2 symmetric stretch
(794 cmꢀ1) and the PF2 antisymmetric stretch (810 cmꢀ1).
The assignment of the skeletal bending modes required
mainly reliance on the ab initio predicted values since no
depolarization data from the Raman spectrum were avail-
able and the infrared band contours in the far infrared
spectrum were non-descript. Also, it is expected that data
from the liquid may be significantly different from that
for the vapor because of the presence of hydrogen-bonded
dimers. Similar problems will also be present from the
infrared and Raman spectra of the crystalline solid where
crystal packing factors may also cause changes in the spec-
tra. Thus, the exact frequencies for these low frequency
bends will require much higher resolution and better qual-
ity spectral data with relatively small uncertainties.
3. Discussion
In the earlier microwave study the evidence for a planar
nitrogen configuration was well documented. For example,
the out-of-plane second moments, Pbb = Rmib2i , are nearly
2
˚
the same with a value of 51.6810 u A for H2NPF2 with the
2
˚
differences of ꢀ0.0001, ꢀ0.0081, 0.0025 and ꢀ0.0006 u A
for the 15N, NHD(cis), NHD(trans) and ND2 isotopomers,
respectively. The fact that the changes are very small and
in two cases negative is strong evidence for planar bonded
nitrogen. The experimentally determined dipole moment
components also support a planar PNH2 group since
assuming a pyramidal nitrogen led to lb = ꢀ0.009
0.031D whereas the assumption of only two components
led to realistic values of la = 2.570 0.007 and
lc = 0.18 0.01D. Other evidence is the relatively short
PN distance which is more consistent with values for a dou-
ble bond than a single bond and the proton NMR coupling
constant for 15NH value of 83.2 Hz which is consistent with
sp2 hybridization which requires 33% s-character compared
to the predicted value of 30% from the coupling constant.
Further support for the planar PNH2 moiety is obtained
from the ab initio calculations where the depth of the
‘‘well’’ for the C1 form (pyramidal nitrogen bonding) is
predicted with values ranging from a high value of
74 cmꢀ1 (MP2/6-311G(2d,2p)) to a low value of 14 cmꢀ1
(MP2/6-311+G(2df,2pd)) compared to the Cs form. These
values are sufficiently small that based on the vibrational
zero-point energies none of the predicted wells could
accommodate an energy level. However, there was one pos-
sible indication of a small hump in the potential function
from the value for the rotational constants of the 2m12
vibrational excited state which do not vary in a harmonic
manner. It was previously proposed [6] that it could be
due to a vibrational–rotational interaction of 2m12 with m8
which have similar frequencies. Therefore, we have con-
cluded that the effective symmetry for the interpretation
of the vibrational and rotational spectra is Cs but there is
a small hump at the planar conformation of the H2NP moi-