A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF THE BOND STRENGTHS OF THE 2ND ROW TRANSITION-METAL HYDRIDES, FLUORIDES, AND CHLORIDES

Correlated calculations have been performed for the diatomic second row transition metal hydrides, fluorides, and chlorides. The ground states have been determined for the entire second row from yttrium to palladium. It is found that the halide binding energies vary much more across the row than the hydride binding energies. The results are analyzed in terms of ionic and covalent contributions to the bonding. The two main factors responsible for the large variation of the halide binding energies are differences in ionization energies and differences in the interactions between the halide lone-pairs and the metal 4d-orbitals for the atoms to the left and to the right. To the left the lone-pair interaction is attractive through electron donation to empty 4d-orbitals, whereas to the right the interaction is repulsive.