Electronic structure and bonding of the 3 d transition metal borides, MB, M = Sc , Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu through all electron ab initio calculations Electronic structure and chemical bonding of divanadium-oxide clusters ( V 2 O x , x=3-7) from anion photoelectron spectroscopy Density functional study of mononitrosyls of first-row transition-metal atoms Vibrationally resolved photoelectron spectra of MC 2 Ϫ ͑MϭSc, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Co͒ are reported at two detachment photon energies, 532 and 355 nm. All the spectra showed a well resolved vibrational progression in the ground state detachment features. Electron affinities, vibrational frequencies, and information about the low-lying electronic states were obtained for the first row transition metal dicarbide molecules. The measured electron affinities for the MC 2 species show strong metal-dependence with a minimum at VC 2 and a maximum at MnC 2 . The ground state vibrational frequencies were observed to decrease from ScC 2 to a minimum in CrC 2 and then increases slightly in MnC 2 and FeC 2 . The trends of the electron affinities and vibrational frequencies for the MC 2 species were found to correlate well with the corresponding monoxides, suggesting that the chemical bonding in M-C 2 is analogous to that in M-O. The M-C 2 bonding was thus interpreted to be quite ionic, and MC 2 can be qualitatively viewed as M 2ϩ C 2 2Ϫ , analogous to M 2ϩ O 2Ϫ .