A multi‐configuration LCAO – MO study for complex unsaturated molecules. II. Application to the benzene cation

The method of the MC–LCAO–MO approach, described in the preceding paper, is further applied to the benzene cation. Through the iteration process the π‐electron energies and the molecular shapes are computed for the ground and two lowest excited states of the cation in both D6h and D2h geometries. A remarkable fact obtained is that a comparatively small variation of the geometrical structure (c. 0.010 – 0.013 Å bond length difference) brings about a considerable change of the energy value (c. 0.85 – 1.25 eV). The π‐electronic excitation energies obtained from the iteration process are compared with the transition energies calculated from the usual method in which the structures of the excited states are assumed to be the same as the corresponding ground state structures. The difference in the excitation energy between the cation and the anion, and the CI effect on the excited states, are discussed. It is found that the doubly excited configurations play an important role in CI, which is somewhat different from that of the singly excited configurations. The stabilization energy due to the Jahn–Teller distortion is estimated for the ground state of the cation.