Study of MoNbOy (y = 2–5) Anion and Neutral Clusters Using Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory Calculations: Impact of Spin Contamination on Single Point Calculations

Results of a study combining anion photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations on the heteronuclear MoNbOy– (y = 2–5) transition metal suboxide cluster series are reported and analyzed. The photoelectron spectra, which exhibit broad electronic bands with partially resolved vibrational structure, were compared to spectral simulations generated from calculated spectroscopic parameters for all computationally determined energetically competitive structures. Although computational results on the less oxidized clusters could not be satisfactorily reconciled with experimental spectra, possibly because of heavy spin contamination found in a large portion of the computational results, the results suggest that (1) neutral cluster electron affinity is a strong indicator of whether O-atoms are bound in MOM bridge positions or MO terminal positions, (2) MoNbOy anions and neutrals have structures that can be described as intermediate with respect to the unary (homonuclear) Mo2Oy and Nb2Oy clusters, and (3) structures in which O-atoms preferentially bind to the Nb center are slightly more stable than alternative structures. Several challenges associated with the calculations are considered, including spin contamination, which appears to cause spurious single point calculations used to determine vertical detachment energies.