The Unpredictability of Research Directions and the Synergy between Theory and Experiment in Physical‐Organic Chemistry

AbstractResearch projects in physical‐organic chemistry can go in unpredictable directions. One such project, described herein, began with the discovery of a large, imaginary, calculated vibrational frequency and soon led to the prediction that cyclobutanetetraone (CO)4 had a triplet ground state. Molecular orbital (MO) theory provided the understanding of why (CO)4 was calculated to have a planar triplet ground state and why, in contrast, (SiO)4 was calculated to have a tetrahedral singlet ground state. Qualitative MO theory, as well as calculations, also predicted that (CO)3, (CO)5, and (CO)6 should all be found to have singlet ground states. Testing experimentally these predictions about (CO)n molecules, n=3–6, led to a very fruitful collaboration with Dr. Xuebin Wang, who obtained the negative ion photoelectron (NIPE) spectra of the radical anions of these four molecules and also of (CS)4. Assignments of the signals in these five NIPE spectra required computing the vibrational progressions in them. The necessary acquisition of the ability to simulate the signals in NIPE spectra resulted in the successful analysis of the very complex spectrum of meta‐benzoquinone (MBQ) radical a