Hydrogen-bonded complexes of nitrous and nitric acids with ethene

The complexes formed by ethene with nitric and nitrous (trans and cis) acids have been investigated by ab initio (SCF and MP2) and B3LYP calculations with 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. Full geometry optimisation has been performed for the complexes studied. The most stable structures of the complexes are established. Bearing in mind the corrected values of the dissociation energy the studied hydrogen-bonded complexes can be ordered as follows: C2H4⋯HONO2 > C2H4⋯HONO-trans > C2H4⋯HONO-cis. In the complexes the acids act as proton donors forming the π-type of hydrogen bond with ethene. The predicted changes in the vibrational characteristics (vibrational frequencies and infrared intensities) arising from the hydrogen bonding are in good agreement with the experimentally measured. The predicted frequency shift of the stretching OH vibration in the nitric acid is largest (−210 cm−1), followed by the shifts in the trans-HONO (−141 cm−1) and cis-HONO (−109 cm−1). The calculations predict an increase of the IR intensity of the stretching O-H vibration in the complexes from 6 to 10 times.