A direct method for locating minimum-energy crossing points (MECPs) in spin-forbidden transitions and nonadiabatic reactions.

An efficient computational method for locating minimum-energy crossing points (MECPs) between potential-energy surfaces in spin-crossover transitions and nonadiabatic spin-forbidden (bio)chemical reactions is introduced. The method has been tested on the phenyl cation and the computed MECP associated with its radiationless singlet-triplet spin crossover is in good agreement with available data. However, the convergence behavior of the present method is significantly more efficient than some alternative methods which allows us to study nonadiabatic processes in larger systems such as spin crossover in metal-containing compounds. The convergence rate of the method obeys a fast logarithmic law which has been verified on the phenyl cation. As an application of this new methodology, the MECPs of the ferrous complex [Fe(ptz)(6)](BF(4))(2), which exhibits light-induced excited spin state trapping, have been computed to identify their geometric and energetic parameters during spin crossover. Our calculations, in conjunction with spin-unrestricted density-functional calculations, show that the transition from the singlet ground state to a triplet intermediate and to the quintet metastable state of [Fe(ptz)(6)](BF(4))(2) is accompanied by unusually large bond-length elongations of the axial ligands ( approximately 0.26 and 0.23 A, respectively). Our results are consistent with crystallographic data available for the metastable quintet but also predict new structural and energetic information about the triplet intermediate and at the MECPs which is currently not available from experiment.