The ene reactions of nitroso compounds involve polarized diradical intermediates

The ene reactions of nitroso compounds were studied with B3LYP/6-31G* geometry optimizations and energy calculations, along with single point energy evaluations using CASPT2/6-31G** and UCCSD(T)/6-311+G* methods. Reactions of HNO with propene and of MeNO and p-NO2C6H4NO with propene or substituted alkenes were also studied. The reaction mechanism is stepwise and involves a polarized diradical intermediate. The electronic structure of this intermediate is between that of a closed shell polar species and that of a pure diradical, and it is stabilized by polar solvents. A weak C-N bonding interaction combined with a CH-O hydrogen bond leads to heightened barriers to rotation about formally single bonds compared to conventional diradicals. Consequently, rotation is slower than hydrogen abstraction and cyclization to form an aziridine N-oxide. This aziridine N-oxide does not lead to ene products without subsequent ring opening but provides a mechanism for the RNO moiety to translate from one end of the alkene to the other. B3LYP calculations are also able to reproduce kinetic isotope effects and regioselectivity.     

Solvent-dependent changes in the triazolinedione-alkene ene reaction mechanism

The influence of the solvent on the triazolinedione-alkene ene reaction mechanism has been investigated. Both inter- and intramolecular kinetic isotope effects with tetramethylethylenes and 2,2,2-(trideuterio)methyl-7-methyl-2,6-octadiene-[D3]-1,1,1 provide, for the first time, strong evidence for changes in the mechanism of the reaction on going from non-protic to polar protic solvents. In non-protic polar or apolar solvents, an aziridinium imide that equilibrates to an insignificant extent with an open intermediate (a dipolar or a polarized biradical) is formed irreversibly in the first, rate-determining step of the reaction, which is followed by fast hydrogen abstraction. On the contrary, in polar protic solvents, hydrogen abstraction is rate limiting, allowing the main dipolar intermediate to equilibrate with its open intermediate(s) as well as with the starting reagents.     

On the origin of geminal regioselectivity in the ene reaction of singlet oxygen with substituted alkenes

The geminal regioselectivity observed in the ene reaction between singlet oxygen and alkenes with anion-stabilizing groups is rationalized on the basis of a perepoxide intermediate, in which in analogy to the nucleophilic attack on protonated epoxides, the perepoxide is opened preferentially at the C---O bond weakened by the substituent.     

Regioselectivity in the ene reaction of singlet oxygen with ortho-prenylphenol derivatives

The ene reaction of singlet oxygen with prenylated dihydroxyacetophenones led to the 2-hydroperoxy-3-methylbut-3-enyl derivatives as the major product. This original regioselectivity outlined a new effect, in competition with the previously established large group non-bonding effect. The oxidation products distribution could be explained by a stabilising interaction between the phenolic hydrogen, ortho to the prenyl side chain, and the perepoxide intermediate.     

Diradical mechanism for the [2 + 2] cycloaddition of ethylene on Si(100) surface

Density functional cluster model calculations have been performed to explore the reaction mechanism for the adsorption of ethylene on Si(100). It is shown that the [2 + 2] cycloaddition of ethylene on a Si=Si dimer of Si (100) surface follows a diradical mechanism, via a pi-complex precursor and a singlet diradical intermediate, and the rate-determining step for the overall reaction is the formation of the diradical intermediate.     

The reaction mechanism of Cytochrome P450 NO reductase: a detailed quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics study

A detailed QM/MM study on the reaction mechanism of Cytochrome P450 NO reductase is reported. Two reaction pathways connecting the two well-characterized intermediates as well as two putative intermediates that represent the unknown third intermediate are explored, with emphasis on the unusual direct reduction of the enzymatic active site by the cofactor NADH. Activation barriers and kinetic isotope effect are calculated and reveal that reduction of the NO-bound species occurs in form of a hydride ion transfer. Furthermore, the impact of different hydrogen bonds in the active site to binding and reactivity of NADH is explored. The calculated kinetic and thermodynamic properties for both modelled pathways are used for the kinetic simulation of the entire reaction course. It is thus shown that the unknown key intermediate is the singlet diradical Fe(III)-NHOH(?). It is also found that the mechanism of the N-N bond formation is spin-recoupling, which is only possible due to the diradical character of the key intermediate.     

Solvent effect on the sensitized photooxygenation of cyclic and acyclic α-diimines

The reaction of singlet molecular oxygen with a series of cyclic and acyclic α-diimines was studied. Time-resolved methods were used to measure total reaction rate constants and steady-state methods were used to determine chemical reaction rate constants. GC-MS was used to tentatively assign the reaction products. 5,6-Disubstituted cyclic α-diimines are singlet oxygen quenchers, but become more effective in polar solvents. A reaction mechanism involving a perepoxide intermediate or transition state leading to a hydroperoxide seems to be a key reaction path for product formation. A replacement of the phenyl substituent for a methyl substituent opens up an additional reaction involving a perepoxide-like exciplex, which increases singlet oxygen quenching of the cyclic α-diimines. The reactivity of 5,6-disubstituted cyclic α-diimines towards singlet oxygen is highly dependent on steric interactions arising from vicinal phenyl rings and from electronic effects. 1,4-Disubstituted acyclic α-diimines are, by comparison, moderate or poor singlet oxygen quenchers. Total rate constants are scarcely dependent on solvent properties, but instead correlate with the Hildebrand parameter. These results are explained in terms of a mechanism involving a dioxetane-like exciplex that gives rise to a charged intermediate leading to products.     

Multireference character of 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of ozone with ethylene and acrylonitrile

In the present study, the concerted and stepwise reaction mechanisms for 1,3-dipole cycloaddition of ozone with ethylene (1) and acrylonitrile (2) are investigated. The stationary points are optimized by using four hybrid R(U)DFT methods. A geometry optimization method based on an approximate spin projection (AP-opt method) is applied to eliminate a spin contamination from the broken-symmetry (BS) solution. The AP-opt method reveals that a diradical intermediate for the stepwise pathway is spurious due to the spin contamination. The revised reaction profile with no diradical intermediate supports the stereospecificity. On the basis of the experimental data, the RCCSD(T) method outperforms AP-UCCSD(T), AP-UBD(T), and MkMRCCSD(4e,4o) for the systems, indicating that the RCCSD(T) method can describe the diradical character of ozone within a framework of single reference wave function. The subsequent single point energy calculations show that the highly synchronous transition state is much more favorable than the asynchronous one for 1. In the case of 2, there is not much difference between two transition states because of its asymmetric structure and charge separations in the transition states.     

锗烯与异硫氰酸反应机理的量子化学研究

采用密度泛函理论B3LYP方法研究了GeH2自由基与HNCS的反应机理,并在B3LYP/6-311++G**水平上对反应物,中间体,过渡态进行了全几何参数优化,通过频率分析和IRC确定中间体和过渡态。为了得到更精确的能量值,用QCISD(T)/6-311++G**方法计算了各个驻点的单点能,计算结果表明单重态的锗烯与异硫氰酸的反应有抽提硫、插入N-H键、抽提亚氨基的路径,而经由三元环中间体的抽提硫反应GeH2+HNCS→IM3→TS2→IM4→TS3→IM5→GeH2S+HNC(P1),反应能垒最低,为主反应通道,甲锗硫醛和异氰氢酸为主产物。锗烯经由四元环中间体抽提硫的反应为竞争反应通道。     

Ab initio study on the reaction of uranium with oxygen

The primary reaction products and reaction mechanism of uranium with oxygen were discussed from MP2 method with the relativistic core potential of SDD basis set for U and 6-311+G* for O. The molecular geometries, electronic structure and energies of uranium oxides were obtained. The inspection on the three-dimensional potential energy surfaces of the U–O₂ interaction suggested that the abstraction and insertion mechanism were responsible for the studied reactions. The abstraction reaction channel resulting in the formation of UO and O is favored because the energy barrier is remarkably smaller than the one of the insertion channel resulting in the linear OUO product directly.     

Theoretical study of the reaction of H atoms with vibrationally highly excited HF molecules

Vibrationally highly excited molecules react extremely fast with atoms and probably with radicals. The phenomenon can be utilized for selectively enhancing the rate of reactions of specific bonds. On the basis of quasiclassical trajectory calculations, the paper analyzes mechanistic details of a prototype reaction, H + HF(v). At vibrational quantum numbers v above 2, the reaction exhibits capture-type behavior, that is, the reactive cross section diverges as the relative translational energy of the partners decreases, both for the abstraction and for the exchange channel. The mechanism of the reaction for both channels is different at low and at high translational energy. At low vibrational energy, the reaction is activated, which is switched to capture-type at high excitation. The reason is an attractive potential that acts on the attacking H atom when the HF molecule is stretched. In contrast to the 6-SEC potential surface of Mielke et al., the switch cannot be observed on the Stark-Werner potential surface, due to a small artificial barrier at high H-HF separation, preventing the reactants from obeying the attractive potential and also proving the importance of the latter. The exchange reaction can be observed even when the total energy available for the partners is below the exchange barrier, because at low translational energies the product F atom of a successful abstraction step can re-abstract that H atom from the intermediate product H2 molecule that was originally the attacker.     

A new solvent-dependent mechanism for a triazolinedione ene reaction

The ene reaction between 4-phenyl-1,2,4-triazoline-3,5-dione (PTAD) and tetramethylethylene has been investigated using QM/MM calculations in water, methanol, DMSO, and acetonitrile. The effects of solvation on the mechanism and rates of reaction are elucidated using two-dimensional potentials of mean force (PMF) simulations utilizing free-energy perturbation theory and Monte Carlo statistical mechanics. A new mechanism is proposed where direct formation of an open dipolar intermediate following the addition of PTAD to the alkene is rate-limiting and the pathway toward ene product is significantly dependent on the reaction medium. In protic solvents, the open dipolar intermediate may proceed directly to the ene product or reversibly form an aziridinium imide (AI) intermediate that does not participate in the reaction. However, in aprotic solvents the open intermediate is short-lived (<10-11 s) and the ene product forms via the AI intermediate. The calculated free energies of activation are in close agreement with those derived from experiment, e.g., DeltaG of 14.9 kcal/mol compared to 15.0 kcal/mol in acetonitrile. Density functional theory calculations at the (U)B3LYP/6-311++G(2d,p) level using the CPCM continuum solvent model were also carried out and confirmed a zwitterionic, and not diradical, open intermediate present in the reaction. Only the QM/MM methodology was able to accurately reproduce the experimental rates and differentiate between the protic and aprotic solvents. Solute-solvent interaction energies, radial distribution functions, and charges are analyzed and show that the major factor dictating the changes in reaction path is hydrogen bond stabilization of the charge separations spanning 2 to 4 atoms in the intermediates and transition states.     

Geometry optimization of the ring-opened oxirane diradical: mechanism of the addition reaction of the triplet oxygen atom to olefins

Geometry optimizations of several low-lying diradical states of the ring-opened oxirane (·CH₂CH₂O·) were performed by using the energy gradients of the UHF MINDO/3, STO-3G and 4-31G solutions. Both the STO-3G and 4-3 IG methods predict that the most stable form is the triplet state of the non-twisted σπ conformation in which the unpaired spins localized on the terminal carbon and oxygen atoms are oriented perpendicularly to each other. The singlet σσ diradical state in which both the radical-site p orbitals are coplanar with the molecular framework is only 2.3 (STO-3G) and 1.2 (4-31G) kcal/mol less stable than the triplet σπ diradical state. It is found that the geometry of the singlet σσ diradical is unique in that the C-C-O angle is noticeably small as compared with various other diradical states. Implications of these results to the mechanism of the oxirane-forming O(³P) + C₂H₄ reaction are discussed.     

Theoretical approach to the mechanism of reactions between halogen atoms and unsaturated hydrocarbons: the Cl + propene reaction

The potential energy surface for the Cl + propene reaction was analyzed at the MP2 level using Pople's 6-31G(d,p) and 6-311+G(d,p), and Dunning's cc-pVDZ and aug-cc-pVDZ basis sets. Two different channels for the addition reaction leading to chloroalkyl radicals and five alternative channels for the abstraction reaction leading to C(3)H(5) (.) + HCl were explored. The corresponding energy profiles were computed at the QCISD(T)/aug-cc-pVDZ//MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory. Theoretical results suggest that the previously established mechanism consisting of (1) direct abstraction and (2) addition-elimination steps is instead made up of (1) addition through an intermediate and (2) two-step abstraction processes. No direct abstraction mechanism exists on the potential energy surface. The kinetic equations derived for the new mechanism are consistent with the pressure dependence experimentally observed for this reaction.     

Theoretical study on the reaction mechanism of CN radical with ketene

The bimolecular single collision reaction potential energy surface of CN radical with ketene (CH2CO) was investigated by means of B3LYP and QCISD(T) methods. The calculated results indicate that there are three possible channels in the reaction. The first is an attack reaction by the carbon atom of CN at the carbon atom of the methylene of CH2CO to form the intermediate NCCH2CO followed by a rupture reaction of the C-C bond combined with -CO group to the products CH2CN CO. The second is a direct addition reaction between CN and CH2CO to form the intermediate CH2C(O)CN followed by its isomerization into NCCH2CO via a CN-shift reaction, and subsequently, NCCH2CO dissociates into CH2CN CO through a CO-loss reaction. The last is a direct hydrogen abstraction reaction of CH2CO by CN radical. Because of the existence of a 15.44 kJ/mol reaction barrier and higher energy of reaction products, the path can be ruled out as an important channel in the reaction kinetics. The present theoretical computation results, which give an available suggestion on the reaction mechanism, are in good agreement with previous experimental studies.     

Geometry optimizations of the dioxetane,perepoxide and 1,4-diradicals for the ethylene plus molecular oxygen system: mechanism of photooxygenation of olefins

Geometry optimization of perepoxide, 1,4-diradicals and dioxetane for the ethylene plus molecular oxygen system is performed using the energy gradients of the HF 4-31G and STO-3G solutions. Perepoxide is less stable than the singlet (σπ) diradical by ≈24 k cal/mole at the 4-31G level, incompatible with the GVB CI plus thermochemical estimations. The rotational barrier of the terminal methylene group around the C-C bond is small.     

Mechanistic and kinetic study of the O + CH2OH reaction

The mechanism for the O + CH2OH reaction was investigated by various ab initio quantum chemistry methods. For the chemical activation mechanism, that is, the addition/elimination path, the couple-cluster methods including CCSD and CCSD(T) were employed with the cc-pVXZ (X = D, T, Q, 5) basis sets. For the abstraction channels, multireference methods including CASSCF, CASPT2, and MRCISD were used with the cc-pVDZ and cc-pVTZ basis sets. It has been shown that the production of H + HCOOH is the major channel in the chemical activation mechanism. The minor channels include HCO + H2O and OH + CH2O. The hydrogen abstraction by an O atom from the CH2OH radical produces either OH + CH2O or OH + HCOH. Moreover, the two abstraction reactions are essentially barrierless processes. The rate constants for the association of O with CH2OH have been calculated using the flexible transition state theory. A weak negative temperature dependence of the rate constants is found in the range 250-1000 K. Furthermore, it is estimated that the abstraction processes also play an important role in the O + CH2OH reaction. Additionally, the falloff behavior for the OCH2OH --> H + HCOOH reaction has been investigated. The present theoretical results are compared to the experimental measurements to understand the mechanism and kinetic behavior of the O + CH2OH reaction and the unimolecular reaction of the OCH2OH radical.     

Ab initio and variational transition state approach to beta-C3N4 formation: kinetics for the reaction of CH3NH2 with H

The CH3NH2 molecule has been considered as either an important intermediate in methane and ammonia mixtures or a precursor in methylamine and hydrogen mixtures in the synthesis of carbon nitride thin films. The fast Hydrogen (H) abstraction from CH3NH2 is an important process involved in the formation of HCN or CNH in the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of carbon nitride thin films. The energetic and kinetic characteristics of the H abstraction reaction from CH3NH2 by atomic H used in CVD of beta-C3N4 were studied using ab initio direct dynamics methods for the first time. Two primary processes were identified for this reaction: H abstraction from the CH3 group and H abstraction from the NH2 group. On the basis of ab initio data, the rate constants of each channel have been deduced by canonical variational transition state theory with small-curvature tunneling correction over a wide temperature range of 200 to approximately 3000 K. The theoretical results were compared with available experimental data.     

Theoretical Studies on the Mechanism of Photocycloaddition Reaction Between 6 Azauracil and Acetone

The mechanism of photocycloaddition reaction between 6-azauracll and acetone was studied by using semiemptrical SCFMO AMI method. It was found that this reaction is not a concerted one. The calculated results are as follows:(1) A T1 state exciplex is on the T1 state energy surface; (2) T exciplex as a reactant will proceed along the energy surface of T1 state to form a diradical intermediate. The energy barrier of this reaction step is 63. 6 kJ/mol; (3) The T1 state diradical intermediate happens to be close in energy to the ground state intermediate with a similar geometry. Such a situation turns out to be very favorable for an intersystem crossing (jump from the T, state to the ground state) ; (4) The final product will be formed from the ground S0 state intermediate via an energy barrier 88. 2 kJ/mol.