Comparison is made o
f the interaction o
fNO
2 with Cu
+ ions in the gas phase and insidezeolitesusing density
functional theory (B3LYP
functional). The zeolite isrepresented by a tritetrahedra modelembedded in the periodic structure o
f zeolite ZSM-5 and by a
free spacecluster model. Both models yieldvirtually the same results. Cu
+ is coordinated totwo oxygen atoms o
f the zeolite
framework only. Forthecomplexes with NO
2, several minima and transitionstructures on the potential energy sur
faces are localized.The naked Cu
+ ion pre
ferentially bindsNO
2 in the
fchars/eta.gi
f" BORDER=0 >
1-O trans mode, while in zeolitesthe Cu
+ site binds NO
2in a
2fchars/eta.gi
f" BORDER=0 >-O,O coordination. For the
2fchars/eta.gi
f" BORDER=0 >-O,O structure the binding is three to
four timesstronger in the zeolite(43 kcal/mol) than in the gas phase which is due to a three-bodyzeolite
framework-Cu
+ ion-NO
2interaction.d
10-s
1d
9 promotion leads toa more
favorable orbital interaction between Cu
+ andNO
2 in the
2A'' state and,due to reduced repulsion, to a stronger electrostatic interactionbetween Cu
+ and the zeolite
framework.