Molecular Spectra and Dissociation Dynamics of Oxalyl Chloride: Effect of External Electrical Fields

Oxalyl chloride is a highly toxic and caustic substance, which widely exists in human production and life as a kind of volatile organic compound. Based on the density functional theory B3 LYP at 6-311++G(d, p) level, the influences of external electric field on the bond length, bond energy, dipole moment and dissociation mechanism are optimized. The results indicate that the C_1–Cl_3 bond length increases while the C_4–Cl_6 bond decreases. At the same time, the carbon-carbon bond length gradually increases with the increase of electric field. The total energy decreases while the dipole moment gradually increases with the increase of electric field. In the infrared spectra, the vibration frequency of the carbon-chlorine(C_4–Cl_6) bond decreases while the vibration frequency of the carbon-oxygen bond increases. In the ultraviolet-visible spectra, the wavelength of the strongest absorption peak increases as the external electric field increases and shows an observable red shift phenomenon. Additionally, single point energies of oxalyl chloride along the carbon-carbon bond are scanned with the equation-of-motion coupled cluster method restricted to single and double excitations(EOM-CCSD) method and the potential energy curves under different external electric fields are obtained. The dissociation barrier in potential energy curve decreases because of the breakage of carbon-carbon bond with the increase of external electric field. These results provide reference for further researches on the properties of oxalyl chloride and offer a theoretical basis for the study of oxalyl chloride degradation.