A new molecule C2H2···CuF has been synthesized in the gas phase by means of the reaction of laser-ablated metallic copper with a pulse of gas consisting of a dilute mixture of ethyne and sulfur hexafluoride in argon. The ground-state rotational spectrum was detected by two types of Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy, namely that conducted in a microwave Fabry-Perot cavity and the chirped-pulse broadband technique. The spectroscopic constants of the six isotopologues 12C2H2···63Cu19F, 12C2H2···65Cu19F, 13C2H2···63Cu19F, 13C2H2···65Cu19F, 12C2D2···63Cu19F and 12C2D2···65Cu19F were determined and interpreted to show that the molecule has a planar, T-shaped geometry belonging to the molecular point group C 2v, with CuF forming the stem of the T. Quantitative interpretation reveals that the ethyne molecule is distorted when subsumed into the complex in such manner that the C[triple bond, length as m-dash]C bond lengthens (by δr) and the two H atoms cease to be collinear with the C[triple bond, length as m-dash]C internuclear line. The H atoms move symmetrically away from the approaching Cu atom of CuF, to increase each *[triple bond, length as m-dash]C-H angle by δA = 14.65(2)°, from 180° to 194.65(2)°. Ab initio calculations at the explicitly-correlated level of theory CCSD(T)(F12*)/aug-cc-pVTZ lead to good agreement with the experimental geometry. It is shown that similar distortions δr and δA, similarly determined, for four complexes C2H2···MX (M = Cu or Ag; X = F, Cl or CCH) are approximately linearly related to the energies D e for the dissociation process C2H2···MX = C2H2 + MX.
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015.