Multireference ab initio studies of zero-field splitting and magnetic circular dichroism spectra of tetrahedral Co(ii) complexes

A newly developed multireference (MR) ab initio method for the calculation of magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra was calibrated through the calculation of the ground- and excited state properties of seven high-spin (S = 3/2) Co(ii) complexes. The MCD spectra were computed by the explicit treatment of spin-orbit coupled (SOC) and spin-spin coupled (SSC) N-electron states. For the complexes studied in this work, we found that the SOC is more important than the SSC for determining the ground state zero field splitting (ZFS). Our computed ZFS parameter D for the [Co(PPh₃)₂Cl₂] model complex is -17.6 cm^-1, which is reasonably close to the experimental value of -14.8 cm^-1. Generally, the computed absorption and MCD spectra are in fair agreement with experiment for all investigated complexes. Thus, reliable electronic structure and spectroscopic predictions for medium sized transition metal complexes are feasible on the basis of this methodology. This characterizes the presented method as a promising tool for MCD spectra interpretations of transition metal complexes in a variety of areas of chemistry and biology.