# Predicting magnetic moment of a metal complex computationally

Recently, for entrance exams, I have been dealing with a lot of weird compounds. One of them is $$\ce{K3[Mn(CN)6]}$$.

The objective was to predict the magnetic moment of the above complex.
I predict that the number of unpaired electrons in the metal is 2 which straight away implies that the magnetic moment must be 2.8 but since it is a mere speculation considering the strong-ligand $$\ce{CN^-}$$ I would like to confirm it by modelling the compound. The data for the given complex is not available/accessible for me.

An article available online says to calculate the average of Gross Orbital Population (in Gaussian09). Trying it out gave an output of 1.

Hence, I would like to know how do I find the magnetic moment computationally (maybe using Gaussian, Gamess, Terachem, OCRA, etc.).

As a sidenote, since NMR uses magnetic field, can it be useful for computing magnetic moment?

• +1. Welcome to the site, and thanks for bringing the question here !!! We hope to see much more of you!! Sep 22 '20 at 3:46
• Your value of 2.8 seems to only be based on the # of unpaired electrons, but according to this it also will have a nuclear component. Sep 23 '20 at 1:04
• @NikeDattani Yes, I remember someone on researchgate telling that it is molecular magnetic moment but their wording was not clear. Should I clear in my question that I want spin only? I am asking so because I do not think it will be possible to seperate it out and that the spin only magnetic moment will be dominant (octahedral symmetry should help?) ---------This is just a speculation Sep 23 '20 at 3:10
• @NikeDattani magnetic properties are dominated by the electrons since the Bohr magneton is way bigger than the nuclear magneton by a ratio of m_e/m_p ~ 1826, which is the reason why we can also use the Born-Oppenheimer principle. Sep 23 '20 at 7:12

The main question here is whether the question makes sense for $${\rm K}_3[{\rm Mn(CN)}_6]$$ as a molecular complex.
Looks like the material has a solid state structure https://materials.springer.com/isp/crystallographic/docs/sd_1100190 which you could with solid state methods. As a complex it's not obvious where the potassiums would go, so you would probably start out by getting rid of the potassiums in the +1 charge state to get $$[{\rm Mn(CN)}_6]^{3-}$$. If you further assumed the $${\rm CN}$$ to be $${\rm CN}^-$$, you would get a +3 oxidation state for $${\rm Mn}$$, and two unpaired electrons, see e.g. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-hybridisation-of-Mn-CN-6-3; but your question was about a computational value.
You could get the magnetic moment on the metal by running some calculations on the $$[{\rm Mn(CN)}_6]^{3-}$$ complex. However, this is not nearly as it sounds like: transition metal complexes are often challenging due to near-degeneracies, which means that the numbers you get from your calculations may be complete garbage (I'm not sure whether this is the case for this complex): density functional approximations may be unreliable, whereas wave function methods may require a very fine balance between static and dynamic correlation to make the computed ground state match the experimental one. Setting up the necessary model and making sure that the computed number is converged with respect to all parameters is a huge hassle.
• The linked website for crystallographics is a bit restrictive for me because I do not have a licence yet. Also, the Quora link is broken (although I know the hybridisation and how to find it). You could get the magnetic moment on the metal by running some calculations .What are the calculations you are referring to, and how to run them? (Note: It will also be helpful if I get to know how to determine mag.moment for molecules like $O_2$ etc.. Sep 23 '20 at 7:46