Investigations of Hypervalent Compounds as High-Energy Materials

Theoretical considerations, and recent calculations, point to the existence of high energy, long lived, metastable states of some uncommon anions. The experimental evidence for such species, and the characterization of these species, has been incomplete. This study attempts to provide experimental information to confirm those theoretical predictions and to, if possible, characterize these high energy species. A series of anions have been selected for study NHO-, NH sub 4, CH sub 5, and SiH sub 5. Studies on the first have been completed to very high resolution, the second species has been prepared and evidence for the existence of a high energy form has been obtained, while all attempts to prepare Ch sub 5 were unsuccessful, suggesting the unlikelihood of its existence. Experimental difficulties, prevented a full characterization of SiH sub 5 spectroscopically in the time frame of these studies. HNO- is a bent linear molecule with very uncharacteristic bonding around the central nitrogen. The high resolution IR spectrum in the 2940 through 3150 wavenumber region, detected through atutodetachment, yields the principal rotational moments of inertia, centrifugal distortion constants, spin-rotation couplings, and individual rotational level lifetimes.