Density functional theory study on OH-initiated atmospheric oxidation of m-xylene

The OH-initiated oxidation reactions of m-xylene are investigated using density functional theory. The structures, energetics, and relative stability of the OH-m-xylene reaction intermediate radicals have been determined, and their activation barriers have been analyzed to assess the energetically favorable pathways to propagate the oxidation. OH addition occurs preferentially at the two ortho positions with the branching ratios of 0.97, 0.02, and 0.01 for ortho, meta, and ipso additions, respectively. The results reveal that the OH-m-xylene-O2 peroxy radicals preferentially cyclize to form bicyclic radicals under atmospheric conditions rather than reacting with NO to lead to ozone formation, and the decomposition to O2 and the hydroxyl m-xylene adduct is competitive with the cyclization process. The bicyclic radicals of m-xylene formed from the major OH-addition pathways (i.e., ortho positions) are more probable to form bicyclic peroxy radicals by reacting with O2. This study provides thermochemical and kinetic data of the OH-initiated reactions of m-xylene for assessment of the role of aromatic hydrocarbons in photochemical production of ozone, toxic products, and secondary organic aerosols.     

Density functional theory study on mechanisms of epoxy‐phenol curing reaction

A comprehensive picture on the mechanism of the epoxy‐phenol curing reactions is presented using the density functional theory B3LYP/ 6‐31G(d,p) and simplified physical molecular models to examine all possible reaction pathways. Phenol can act as its own promoter by using an addition phenol molecule to stabilize the transition states, and thus lower the rate‐limiting barriers by 27.0–48.9 kJ/mol. In the uncatalyzed reaction, an epoxy ring is opened by a phenol with an apparent barrier of about 129.6 kJ/mol. In catalyzed reaction, catalysts facilitate the epoxy ring opening prior to curing that lowers the apparent barriers by 48.9–50.6 kJ/mol. However, this can be competed in highly basic catalysts such as amine‐based catalysts, where catalysts are trapped in forms of hydrogen‐bonded complex with phenol. Our theoretical results predict the activation energy in the range of 79.0–80.7 kJ/mol in phosphine‐based catalyzed reactions, which agrees well with the reported experimental range of 54–86 kJ/mol. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Density functional theory study of the oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde on a hydrated vanadia cluster

Density functional theory was used to study the mechanism for the oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde. A vanadium oxide cluster O?V(OH)₃ has been utilized to represent the catalytic system under hydrated conditions, i.e., in the presence of V? OH hydroxyl groups. Two types of methoxy‐intermediates have been considered: a penta‐coordinate methoxy‐intermediate (OH)₄V(OCH₃) and a tetrahedral methoxy‐intermediate (OH)₂VO(OCH₃)(H₂O). The most plausible reaction pathway corresponds to the process involving first the formation of the tetrahedral methoxide, and a subsequent rate‐limiting step where hydrogen is transferred from the methoxy groups toward the oxygen atom of the vanadyl V?O site. The reaction mechanism is a typical two‐state reactivity process due to a change of the multiplicity (reactive singlet → product triplet) along the reaction coordinate accompanied by a reduction of the vanadium center from V^V (d⁰) to V^III (d²). Minimum energy crossing points were localized and possible spin inversion processes are discussed by means of the intrinsic reaction coordinate approach to find the most favorable reaction pathways. The hydration effect is found to be mainly the destabilization of the methoxy intermediates. An alternative reaction pathway with a lower apparent barrier is presented. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2010     

Density functional theory study of the oxidation of ammonia on the IrO2(110) surface

In this study, we employed density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the oxidation of ammonia (NH(3)) on the IrO(2)(110) surface. We characterized the possible reaction pathways for the dehydrogenation of NH(x) species (x = 1-3) and for the formation of the oxidation products N(2), N(2)O, NO, NO(2), and H(2)O. The presence of oxygen atoms on coordinatively unsaturated sites (O(cus)) of the oxygen-rich IrO(2)(110) surface promotes the oxidation of NH(3) on the surface. In contrast, NH(3) molecules prefer undergoing desorption over oxidation on the stoichiometric IrO(2)(110) surface. Moreover, the O(cus) atoms are also the major oxidants leading to the formation of oxidation products; none of the oxidations mediated by the bridge oxygen atoms were favorable reactions. The energy barrier for formation of H(2)O as a gaseous oxidation product on the IrO(2)(110) surface is high (from 1.83 to 2.29 eV), potentially leading to the formation of nitrogen-atom-containing products at high temperature. In addition, the selectivity toward the nitrogen-atom-containing products is dominated by the coverage of O(cus) atoms on the surface; for example, a higher coverage of O(cus) atoms results in greater production of nitrogen oxides (NO, NO(2)).     

Density functional theory analysis of the reaction pathway for methane oxidation to acetic acid catalyzed by Pd2+ in sulfuric acid

Density functional theory has been used to investigate the thermodynamics and activation barriers associated with the direct oxidation of methane to acetic acid catalyzed by Pd2+ cation in concentrated sulfuric acid. Pd2+ cations in such solutions are ligated by two bisulfate anions and by one or two molecules of sulfuric acid. Methane oxidation is initiated by the addition of CH4 across one of the Pd-O bonds of a bisulfate ligand to form Pd(HSO4)(CH3)(H2SO4)2. The latter species will react with CO to produce Pd(HSO4)(CH3CO)(H2SO4)2. The most likely path to the final products is found to be via oxidation of Pd(HSO4)(CH3)(H2SO4)2 and Pd(HSO4)(CH3CO)(H2SO4)2 to form Pd(eta2-HSO4)(HSO4)2(CH3)(H2SO4) and Pd(eta2-HSO4)(HSO4)2(CH3CO)(H2SO4), respectively. CH3HSO4 or CH3COHSO4 is then produced by reductive elimination from the latter two species, and CH(3)COOH is then formed by hydrolysis of CH3COHSO4. The loss of Pd2+ from solution to form Pd(0) or Pd-black is predicted to occur via reduction with CO. This process is offset, though, by reoxidation of palladium by either H2SO4 or O2.     

Biocompatible water-in-oil emulsion as a model to study ascorbic acid effect on lipid oxidation

A biocompatible water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion has been used as a model to study the effect of ascorbic acid (AA) on the oxidation of the oil (glycerol trioleate, GTO) continuous phase. The model system consisted of 3 wt % water dispersed in GTO containing 0.5 wt % sodium oleate (NaO)/oleic acid (OA) mixture (NaO/OA = 20/80 mol/mol %) as a stabilizer. To study the ascorbic acid effect on GTO light-promoted oxidation, we added aqueous solutions of ascorbic acid to GTO in place of distilled water. Results obtained as peroxide values show that ascorbic acid activity depends on its concentration and it is affected by the characteristics of the W/O interface. In the presence of ascorbyl palmitate (AP) or sorbitan trioleate (Span 85) in the continuous phase, ascorbic acid activity increases in the first few hours of oxidation. The effect of ascorbic acid has been related to emulsion structure by calculating characteristic parameters of the droplet size distributions by means of optical microscopy.     

Photosensitization mechanisms of triplet excited state beta-lapachone. A density functional theory study

Beta-Lapachone is a natural product with multiple pharmacological activities and mechanistic studies indicated that reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by beta-lapachone play significant roles in its pharmacological actions. As photosensitization is an important ROS-generating pathway, in the present work, the photosensitization mechanisms of beta-lapachone are explored on the basis of density functional theory estimated triplet excited state characters. Starting from triplet excited state beta-lapachone, the possible generating pathways of 1O2 and O2*- are elucidated and the solvent effects on the photosensitizing reactions are also discussed.     

Assessment of density functional methods for reaction energetics: Iridium‐catalyzed water oxidation as case study

We investigate basis set convergence for a series of density functional theory (DFT) functionals (both hybrid and nonhybrid) and compare to coupled‐cluster with single and double excitations and perturbative triples [CCSD(T)] benchmark calculations. The case studied is the energetics of the water oxidation reaction by an iridium‐oxo complex. Complexation energies for the reactants and products complexes as well as the transition state (TS) energy are considered. Contrary to the expectation of relatively weak basis set dependence for DFT, the basis set effects are large, for example, more than 10 kcal mol^?1 difference from converged basis for the activation energy with “small” basis sets (DZ/6‐31G** for Ir/other atoms, or SVP) and still more than 6 kcal mol^?1 for def2‐TZVPP/6‐31G**. Inclusion of the dispersion correction in DFT‐D3 schemes affects the energies of reactant complex (RC), TS, and product complex (PC) by almost the same amount; it significantly improves the complexation energy (the formation of RC), but has little effect on the activation energy with respect to RC. With converged basis, some pure GGAs (PBE‐D3, BP86‐D3) as well as the hybrid functional B3LYP‐D3 are very accurate compared to benchmark CCSD(T) calculations. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A density functional theory study on the mechanism of the permanganate oxidation of substituted alkenes.

Oxidation of substituted alkenes by permanganate follows a (3 + 2) cycloaddition mechanism. DFT calculations (Becke3LYP/6-31G(d)) strongly favor the (3 + 2) pathway against a (2 + 2) pathway that proceeds through a metallaoxetane. The difference in free activation energy between the two pathways is around 40 to 45 kcal/mol for the nine compounds covered. The results for the (3 + 2) cycloaddition mechanism are in agreement with experimentally observed kinetic data reported earlier. Symmetric transition states are calculated for alkenes with at least one CH2 group between the double bond and the acid group, while all others are unsymmetrical due to the repulsion between the permanganate oxygens and the carboxylic oxygens. Steric bulk, introduced by the number and position of substituents at the double bond, has no significant effect on the activation energies. A higher level of theory (Becke3LYP/6-311G(d,p)) leads to a reduction of the rmsd between experimental and calculated values, but has little influence on the calculated geometries.     

Density functional theory model study of size and structure effects on water dissociation by platinum nanoparticles

Size and structure effects on the homolytic water dissociation reaction mediated by Pt nanoparticles have been investigated through density functional theory calculations carried out on a series of cubooctahedral Pt(n) nanoparticles of increasing sizes (n = 13, 19, 38, 55, 79, and 140). Water adsorption energy is not significantly influenced by the nanoparticle size. However, activation energy barrier strongly depends on the particle size. In general, the activation energy barrier increases with nanoparticles size, varying from 0.30 eV for Pt(19) to 0.70 eV for Pt(140). For the largest particle the calculated barrier is very close to that predicted for water dissociation on Pt(111) (0.78 eV) even though the reaction mediated by the Pt nanoparticles involves adsorption sites not present on the extended surface.     

Density functional theory study of CO catalytic oxidation on Co_2B_2/TiO_2（110） surface

Titanium dioxide with CoB amorphous alloys nanoparticles deposited on the surface is known to exhibit higher catalytic activity than the CoB amorphous. A study of the structure of such system is necessary to understand this effect. A quantum chemical study of Co2B2 on the TiO2 (110) surface was studied using periodic slab model within the framework of density functional theory (DFT). The results of geometry optimization indicated that the most stable model of adsorption was Co2B2 cluster adsorbed on the hollow site of TiO2.The adsorption energy calculated for Co2B2 on the hollow site was 439.3 kJ/mol.The adsorption of CO and O2 was further studied and the results indicated that CO and O2 are preferred to adsorb on the Co2 site. Co-adsorption of CO and O2 shows that Co2B2/TiO2 is a good catalyst for the oxidation of CO to carbon dioxide in the presence of oxygen.     

A density functional theory study of a concerted mechanism for proton exchange between amino acid side chains and water

 A concerted mechanism for proton exchange between water and the amino acid side chains of cysteine, serine, arginine and glutamic acid has been investigated with hybrid density functional theory. The models used include, besides the amino acid side chain, a number of water molecules ranging from one to five in some cases. The modeling of the amino acids without their backbones is shown to be an excellent approximation. Long-range polarization effects were incorporated through a dielectric cavity method allowing a better comparison to existing measurements for free amino acids in water. The barriers converge rather fast with the number of water molecules for all the present amino acids and the converged values are in reasonable agreement with experiments with discrepancies in the range 2–6 kcal/mol. The dielectric effects were found to be small for all systems except cysteine, where there is a lowering of the barrier by 3–5 kcal/mol. The transition states for these concerted pathways form rings in which the separated charges can be stabilized. Received: 25 October 1999 / Accepted: 5 April 2000 / Published online: 21 June 2000     

A systematic study of CO oxidation on metals and metal oxides: density functional theory calculations

CO oxidation on Ru(0001), Rh(111), Pd(111), Os(0001), Ir(111), Pt(111), and their corresponding metal oxides is studied using density functional theory. It is found that (i) the reactivity of metal oxide is generally higher than that of the corresponding metal, and (ii) on both metals and metal oxides, the higher the chemisorption energy is in the initial state, the larger the reaction barrier. The barriers are further analyzed by decomposing them into electronic and geometric effects, and the higher reactivity of metal oxides is attributed mainly to the surface geometric effect. Moreover, the electronic effect on both metals and metal oxides follows the same pattern: the shorter the OC-O bond distance in the TS, the higher the barrier.     

Methanol oxidation on the PtPd(111) alloy surface: A density functional theory study

The mechanisms of methanol (CH₃OH) oxidation on the PtPd(111) alloy surface were systematically investigated by using density functional theory calculations. The energies of all the involved species were analyzed. The results indicated that with the removal of H atoms from adsorbates on PtPd(111) surface, the adsorption energies of (i) CH₃OH, CH₂OH, CHOH, and COH increased linearly, while those of (ii) CH₃OH, CH₃O, CH₂O, CHO, and CO exhibited odd‐even oscillation. On PtPd(111) surface, CH₃OH underwent the preferred initial C H bond scission followed by successive dehydrogenation and then CHO oxidation, that is, CH₃OH → CH₂OH → CHOH → CHO → CHOOH → COOH → CO₂. Importantly, the rate‐determining step of CH₃OH oxidation was found to switch from CO → CO₂ on Pt(111) to COOH → CO₂ + H on PtPd(111) with a lower energy barrier of 0.96 eV. Moreover, water also decomposed into OH more easily on PtPd(111) than on Pt(111). The calculated results indicate that alloying Pt with Pd could efficiently improve its catalytic performance for CH₃OH oxidation through altering the primary pathways from the CO path on pure Pt to the non‐CO path on PtPd(111).     

基态氧(3^O2)氧化硅烯的密度泛函计算研究

采用密度泛函[B3LYP(full)/6-311+G^*]方法研究了基态氧(3^O2)氧化硅烯(Si2H4)的机理。计算了三重态初始中间体(IM(T1)到单重态中间体IM2(S0)反应交叉势能面,报道了各反应中间体、产物和过渡态的构型和能量,用频率分析方法对各过渡态进行了验证,进一步用IRC方法对主要的基元反应进行了考察,确定了历经生成1,2-二氧环氧硅烷中间体的氧化过程的主要反应通道。     

Density functional theory study on the effect of substitution and ring annelation to the rim of corannulene

B3LYP/6-311G calculations indicate that annelation of a five-membered ring to the rim of corannulene and substitution to all the rim carbons lowers the barrier for bowl-to-bowl inversion. Singlet-triplet energy differences, frontier orbital analysis, and nucleus-independent chemical shift (NICS) values indicate significant enhancement of the reactivity when the substitutions involve exocyclic double bonds. Bowl-to-bowl inversion barrier, curvature, and reactivity for unsaturated and saturated five-membered ring-annelated corannulenes are analogous to decamethyl- and decamethylene-substituted corannulenes.     

Selective oxidation of styrene on an oxygen-adsorbed Au(111): A density functional theory study

The reaction mechanism for the styrene selective oxidation on the oxygen preadsorbed Au(111) surface has been studied by the density functional theory calculation with the periodic slab model. The calculated results showed that the process of reaction includes two steps: forming the oxametallacycle intermediate (OMME) and then producing the products. It was found that the second step, from OMME to product is the rate-controlling step, which is similar to ethylene selective oxidation on Ag. Importantly, the present density-functional-theory calculation results suggested that the mechanism via the OMME (2) (i.e. the preadsorbed atomic oxygen bound to the CH2 group involved in C6H5--CH=CH2) to produce styrene epoxide is kinetically favored than that of OMME (1).     

A density functional theory study of the oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde over vanadia supported on silica,titania and zirconia

The mechanism of the selective oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde over vanadia supported on silica, titania and zirconia, suggested recently by Khaliullin and Bell, has been critically reconsidered at the same density functional theory (B3LYP/6-31G*) level. It was shown that an improper use of cluster models mimicking an intrinsic support structure may result in the failure to explain the observed experimental findings like those found in the above paper, i.e. when considering the activation energies and TOF between those three different supports, as well as the next-nearestneighbor V environment geometry for vanadia supported on titania catalyst.     

Sigmatropic rearrangements as tools for amino acid and peptide modification: application of the allylic sulfur ylide rearrangement to the preparation of neoglycoconjugates and other conjugates

Reaction of S-allyl cysteine derivatives, generated by the selenocysteine ligation, with rhodium carbenoids, stabilized and unstabilized, enables the attachment of diverse functionality onto cysteine residues. The reaction is successfully applied to the introduction of lipid-like residues, a fluorous alkyl chain, and mono- and disaccharides.