Dehydroxylation of Glycerol on Pt Surfaces: Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Study

Glycerol is an important raw material in the chemical industry, and dehydroxylation of glycerol would produce 1, 2-propanediol and 1, 3-propanediol. Here we studied glycerol dehydroxylation with ab initio molecular dynamics simulations on Pt(111) and Pt(211) surfaces at 453 K. The free energies obtained on Pt show that dehydroxylation is more likely to occur at the terminal carbon than the central carbon, and 1, 2-propanediol would be produced preferentially, which is consistent with the selectivity observed experimentally. We found a linear relationship between the free energy barrier and the difference of average distances between O atoms at the initial state and transition state. Although a high correlation between the stability of gaseous glycerol and the number of formed hydrogen bonds is determined from density functional theory calculations, the hydrogen bonds formed within surface structures play a negligible role in determining the free energy barriers of dehydroxylation.     

Ab Initio Calculations on Halogen Bond Between N——Br and Electron-donating Groups

Ab initio calculations of complexes formed between N-bromosuccinimide and a series of electron-donating groups were performed at the level of MP2/Lanl2DZ to gain a deeper insight into the nature of the N—Br halogen bonding. For the small complexes, H3C—Br…NH3 and H2N—Br…NH3, the primary calculation has demonstrated that the N—Br in H2N—Br…NH3 can form a much stronger halogen-bonding complex than the C—Br. A comparison of neutral hydrogen bond complex series reveals that the electron-donating capacities of the atoms decrease in the order, N>O>S; O(sp3)>O(sp2), which is adequate for the C—Br halogen bonding. Interaction energies, in conjunction with the geometrical parameters show that the affinitive capacity of trihalide anions X-3 with N-bromosuccinimide are markedly lower than that of the corresponding X- with N-bromosuccinimide, even lower than those of neutral molecules with N-bromosuccinimide. AIM analyses further confirmed the above results.     

Ab Initio Study of Conformational Properties of ( Z, Z)-, ( E, Z)-, and ( E, E)-Cyclonona-1,5-dienes

Summary. Ab initio calculations at the HF/6-31G^* level of theory for geometry optimization and MP2/6-31G^*//HF/6-31G^* for a single point total energy calculation are reported for the important energy-minimum conformations and transition-state geometries of (Z,Z)-, (E,Z)-, and (E,E)-cyclonona-1,5-dienes. The C₂ symmetric chair conformation of (Z,Z)-cyclonona-1,5-diene is calculated to be the most stable form; the calculated energy barrier for ring inversion of the chair conformation via the C_s symmetric boat-chair geometry is 58.3kJmol^–1. Interconversion between chair and twist-boat-chair (C₁) conformations takes place via the twist (C₁) as intermediate. The unsymmetrical twist conformation of (E,Z)-cyclonona-1,5-diene is the most stable form. Ring inversion of this conformation takes place via the unsymmetrical chair and boat-chair geometries. The calculated strain energy for this process is 63.5kJmol^–1. The interconversion between twist and the boat-chair conformations can take place by swiveling of the trans double bond with respect to the cis double bond and requires 115.6kJmol^–1. The most stable conformation of (E,E)-cyclonona-1,5-diene is the C₂ symmetric twist-boat conformation of the crossed family, which is 5.3kJmol^–1 more stable than the C_s symmetric chair–chair geometry of the parallel family. Interconversion of the crossed and parallel families can take place by swiveling of one of the double bonds and requires 142.0kJmol^–1.