Theoretical studies of metallo (Li and Na)-ene reaction mechanisms

The reaction mechanisms of allyl-lithium and allyl-sodium with ethylene were studied by ab initio molecular orbital (MO) methods. The reaction mechanisms were analyzed by a CiLC-IRC method on the basis of ab initio CASSCF MOs. The ene reaction pathways of allyl-Li and allyl-Na with ethylene were located. The complex between allyl-metal and ethylene for both systems is found in the first step of the reaction, and then the metal migration and new C-C bond formation occur synchronously through the transition state. The complexation energies are -13.2 and -9.6 kcal/mol for Li and Na systems, respectively. The activation energy barriers from the reactants are 3.5 kcal/mol for the Li system and 2.0 kcal/mol for the Na system at the MRMP2 calculation level. These barriers are significantly lower than that of the ene reaction of propene with ethylene as the parent reaction. The CiLC-IRC analysis shows that the reaction of allyl-metal with ethylene is a concerted ene reaction mechanism, not a metal catalysis and/or a stepwise reaction.     

Concerted vs stepwise mechanisms in dehydro-Diels-Alder reactions

The Diels-Alder reaction is not limited to 1,3-dienes. Many cycloadditions of enynes and a smaller number of examples with 1,3-diynes have been reported. These "dehydro"-Diels-Alder cycloadditions are one class of dehydropericyclic reactions which have long been used to generate strained cyclic allenes and other novel structures. CCSD(T)//M05-2X computational results are reported for the cycloadditions of vinylacetylene and butadiyne with ethylene and acetylene. Both concerted and stepwise diradical routes have been explored for each reaction, with location of relevant stationary points. Relative to 1,3-dienes, replacement of one double bond by a triple bond adds 6-6.5 kcal/mol to the activation barrier; a second triple bond adds 4.3-4.5 kcal/mol to the barrier. Product strain decreases the predicted exothermicity. In every case, a concerted reaction is favored energetically. The difference between concerted and stepwise reactions is 5.2-6.6 kcal/mol for enynes but diminishes to 0.5-2 kcal/mol for diynes. Experimental studies on intramolecular diyne + ene cycloadditions show two distinct reaction pathways, providing evidence for competing concerted and stepwise mechanisms. Diyne + yne cycloadditions connect with arynes and ethynyl-1,3-cyclobutadiene. This potential energy surface appears to be flat, with only a minute advantage for a concerted process; many diyne cycloadditions or aryne cycloreversions will proceed by a stepwise mechanism.     

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.     

Theoretical analysis of concerted and stepwise mechanisms of Diels-Alder reactions of butadiene with silaethylene and disilene

The concerted and the stepwise mechanisms of the Diels-Alder reactions of butadiene with silaethylene and disilene were studied by ab initio MO methods. For the reaction of butadiene and silaethylene, an asymmetric concerted process that is almost stepwise and two stepwise processes were located. For the first step of the stepwise process, the C-Si bond formation is more favorable than the C-C bond formation. The activation energy barrier of the concerted transition state is only 0.89 kcal/mol lower than that of the first-step transition state of the C-Si bond formation for the stepwise process by the CASPT2 calculation level. For the reaction of butadiene and disilene, the activation energy barrier of the concerted-type transition state constrained with Cs symmetry is about 9 kcal/mol higher than that of the stepwise transition state by the CASSCF method. The energy barrier of the first step of the stepwise reaction disappears at the CASPT2/6-311++G(d,p) calculation level including the nondynamical correlation energy, although the reaction of the butadiene with disilene occurs through the stepwise-like process.     

"Concerted" transition state, stepwise mechanism. Dynamics effects in C2-C6 enyne allene cyclizations

The C2-C6 (Schmittel)/ene cyclization of enyne-allenes is studied by a combination of kinetic isotope effects, theoretical calculations, and dynamics trajectories. For the cyclization of allenol acetate 9, the isotope effect (k(CH3)/k(CD3) is approximately 1.43. The isotope effect is interpreted in terms of a highly asynchronous transition state near the concerted/stepwise boundary. This is supported by density functional theory calculations that locate a highly asynchronous transition structure for the concerted ene reaction. However, calculations of both the experimental system and a model reaction were unable to locate a transition structure for formation of the diradical intermediate of a stepwise mechanism. The stepwise mechanism and the asynchronous concerted mechanism start out geometrically similar, and the two pathways appear to have merged as far as the initial transition structure. For the model reaction, quasiclassical direct dynamics trajectories emanating from the initial transition structure afforded the diradical intermediate in 29 out of 101 trajectories. A large portion of the remaining trajectories completes hydrogen transfer before carbon-carbon bond formation, despite the advanced carbon-carbon bond formation in the asynchronous transition structure. Overall, the single minimum-energy path from starting material to product is inadequate to describe the reaction, and a consideration of dynamic effects is necessary to understand the mechanism. The implications of these observations toward questions of concert in other reactions are discussed.     

DFT方法研究酸性沸石上苯与乙烯烷基化反应的机理

采用B3LYP/6-31G*水平计算来研究酸性沸石上苯与乙烯的烷基化反应历程,从生成能和反应活化能角度分析并讨论了苯与乙烯的反应机理.选取4T簇模型模拟分子筛的酸性位,使用密度泛函理论对烷基化反应三种不同的反应机理(两个联合反应机理和一个分步反应机理)进行计算分析.结果表明,在联合反应机理中,乙烯的质子化和苯与乙烯间C-C键的形成同时发生;分步反应机理中,首先形成一个稳定的乙醇盐中间物种,然后与苯分子反应形成乙苯.联合机理速控步骤的活化能约为160kJ/mol,分步机理速控步骤的活化能为190.24kJ/mol,因此,酸性沸石上苯与乙烯烷基化反应机理主要以联合机理为主,但分步机理与其有一定程度的竞争。     

A DFT Study on the Reaction Pathways for Carbon?Carbon Bond‐Forming Reactions between Propargylic Alcohols and Alkenes or Ketones Catalyzed by Thiolate‐Bridged Diruthenium Complexes

The reaction pathways of two types of the carbon? carbon bond‐forming reactions catalyzed by thiolate‐bridged diruthenium complexes have been investigated by density‐functional‐theory calculations. It is clarified that both carbon? carbon bond‐forming reactions proceed through a ruthenium–allenylidene complex as a common reactive intermediate. The attack of π electrons on propene or the vinyl alcohol on the ruthenium–allenylidene complex is the first step of the reaction pathways. The reaction pathways are different after the attack of nucleophiles on the ruthenium–alkynyl complex. In the reaction with propene, the carbon? carbon bond‐forming reaction proceeds through a stepwise process, whereas in the reaction with vinyl alcohol, it proceeds through a concerted process. The interactions between the ruthenium–allenylidene complex and propene or vinyl alcohol have been investigated by applying a simple way of looking at orbital interactions.     

Investigation of ethylene dimerization over faujasite zeolite by the ONIOM method.

Ethylene dimerization was investigated by using an 84T cluster of faujasite zeolite modeled by the ONIOM3(MP2/6-311++G(d,p):HF/6-31G(d):UFF) method. Concerted and stepwise mechanisms were evaluated. In the stepwise mechanism, the reaction proceeds by protonation of ethylene to form the surface ethoxide and then C--C bond formation between the ethoxide and the second ethylene molecule to give the butoxide product. The first step is rate-determining and has an activation barrier of 30.06 kcal mol(-1). The ethoxide intermediate is rather reactive and readily reacts with another ethylene molecule with a smaller activation energy of 28.87 kcal mol(-1). In the concerted mechanism, the reaction occurs in one step of simultaneous protonation and C--C bond formation. The activation barrier is calculated to be 38.08 kcal mol(-1). Therefore, the stepwise mechanism should dominate in ethylene dimerization.     

Theoretical Study on the Addition Reactions of Benzaldoximes with Propene

Nitrones are useful in the preparation of many interesting compounds such as amino aldehydes, aminosugars, aza sugars, amino acids, aminoalcohols, peptide isosteres and nucleoside analogs. Nitrones are generally prepared by the condensation reactions of c…     

Reactions of 1,3-cyclohexadiene with singlet oxygen. A theoretical study.

A thorough study of the reaction of singlet oxygen with 1,3-cyclohexadiene has been made at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) and CASPT2(12e,10o) levels. The initial addition reaction follows a stepwise diradical pathway to form cyclohexadiene endoperoxide with an activation barrier of 6.5 kcal/mol (standard level = CASPT2(12e,10o)/6-31G(d); geometries and zero-point corrections at B3LYP/6-31G(d)), which is consistent with an experimental value of 5.5 kcal/mol. However, as the enthalpy of the transition structure for the second step is lower than the diradical intermediate, the reaction might also be viewed as a nonsynchronous concerted reaction. In fact, the concertedness of the reaction is temperature dependent since entropy differences create a free energy barrier for the second step of 1.8 kcal/mol at 298 K. There are two ene reactions; one is a concerted mechanism (DeltaH(double dagger) = 8.8 kcal/mol) to 1-hydroperoxy-2,5-cyclohexadiene (5), while the other, which forms 1-hydroperoxy-2,4-cyclohexadiene (18), passes through the same diradical intermediate (9) as found on the pathway to endoperoxide. The major pathway from the endoperoxide is O-O bond cleavage (22.0 kcal/mol barrier) to form a 1,4-diradical (25), which is 13.9 kcal/mol less stable than the endoperoxide. From the diradical, two low-energy pathways exist, one to epoxyketone (29) and the other to the diepoxide (27), where both products are known to be formed experimentally with a product ratio sensitive to the nature of substitutents. A significantly higher activation barrier leads to C-C bond cleavage and direct formation of maleic aldehyde plus ethylene.     

Theoretical analysis of concerted and stepwise mechanisms of the hetero-Diels–Alder reaction of butadiene with formaldehyde and thioformaldehyde

The concerted and stepwise mechanisms of the hetero-Diels–Alder reaction of butadiene with formaldehyde and thioformaldehyde were studied by a CASSCF molecular orbital method. The energy barrier of the concerted reaction of butadiene with formaldehyde is about 21 kcal/mol higher than that of butadiene with thioformaldehyde at the CAS-MP2 calculation level. For the stepwise reaction paths, the energy barrier for the first step process of the reaction of butadiene with formaldehyde is about 17 kcal/mol above that of butadiene with thioformaldehyde. The concerted pathways for both systems are more favorable by 9–12 kcal/mol than the stepwise pathways. The electronic mechanisms for the concerted reactions of both reaction systems are also discussed by a CiLC analysis.     

Theoretical study of the reaction mechanisms involved in the thermal intramolecular reactions of 1,6-fullerenynes

Substitution of a H atom by an alkyl group on the terminal carbon of the alkyne moiety of 1,6-fullerenynes has a strong impact on the products of the reaction undergone by this species after thermal treatment. While the reaction of 1,6-fullerenynes bearing an unsubstituted alkyne moiety results in the cycloaddition of the alkyne group to the fullerene double bond leading to cyclobutene-fused derivatives, the presence of an alkyl substituent leads to the formation of allenes. In the present work, we have performed an exhaustive theoretical analysis of all possible reaction mechanisms leading to cyclobutene-fused derivatives and allenes to offer an explanation of the reactivity differences observed. The results obtained show that formation of cyclobutene-fused derivatives occurs through a stepwise diradical reaction mechanism, while allene formation proceeds through a concerted way involving an uncommon intramolecular ene process. For the 1,6-fullerenynes bearing a substituted alkyne, the ene reaction path leading to allenes has an energy barrier somewhat lower than the stepwise diradical mechanism for the cyclobutene-fused derivative formation, thus explaining the outcome of the reaction.     

Competition between diradical stepwise and concerted mechanisms in chalcogeno-Diels-Alder reactions: a density functional study

The chalcogeno-Diels-Alder reactions of H(2)C=X (X = S, Se, Te) with butadiene, with trans,trans- and cis,trans-2,4-hexadiene, as well as of ethylene with thio-, seleno-, and telluroacrolein and reactions of thioformaldehyde with thioacrolein are examined theoretically. The B3LYP exchange-correlation functional with the 6-31G(d) and LanL2DZ(d) basis sets is employed. Stepwise diradical and concerted pathways are considered for all reactants. A modified concerted mechanism via a pre-reaction complex followed by a concerted transition state is studied for thioformaldehyde reacting with thioacrolein. The stepwise diradical pathways are predicted to be energetically less favorable than the concerted pathways for all cases considered. Even the sterically hindered reaction between selenoformaldehyde and cis,trans-2,4-hexadiene prefers a concerted path. It is a considerable challenge to reverse this energy preference for the concerted reaction given that both electronic and steric factors act to increase or decrease the activation energies of the concerted and diradical stepwise paths in the same way. A modified concerted mechanism operates for reagents with very small HOMO-LUMO gaps such as thioformaldehyde and thioacrolein. This mechanism is completely synchronous, with a vanishingly small barrier.     

Theoretical Studies on the Aminolysis of Ester: Effects of the Catalysis and Substituent to the Reaction of Methyl Indole-3-acetate with Ammonia

A comprehensive exploration of the aminolysis mechanism for methyl indole-3-acetate with ammonia is carried out by employing the B3 LYP/6-311++G(d,p), M06-2 X/6-311++G(d,p) and MP2/6-311++G(d,p)//M06-2 X/6-311++G(d,p) levels. Two alterative reaction channels of the concerted and addition/elimination stepwise processes including the uncatalyzed, base-catalyzed reactions are taken into consideration. Subsequently, the substituent effects and solvent effects in methanol are also evaluated at the M06-2 X/6-311++G(d,p) level. The calculated results indicate that the calculated values of M06-2 X level are quite close to those of MP2, the stepwise pathway has more advantages to the concerted one for all of the reaction processes and the catalyst facilitates the proton migration and decreases the energy barriers as well. It is shown that the most preferred mechanism is the based-catalyzed stepwise process, the substituent of NH2 group slightly accelerates all the aminolysis reaction processes, and the solvent effect does not remarkably change the mechanism of the reaction.     

Kinetic effects of hydrogen bonds on proton-coupled electron transfer from phenols

The kinetics and mechanism of proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) from a series of phenols to a laser flash generated [Ru(bpy)(3)](3+) oxidant in aqueous solution was investigated. The reaction followed a concerted electron-proton transfer mechanism (CEP), both for the substituted phenols with an intramolecular hydrogen bond to a carboxylate group and for those where the proton was directly transferred to water. Without internal hydrogen bonds the concerted mechanism gave a characteristic pH-dependent rate for the phenol form that followed a Marcus free energy dependence, first reported for an intramolecular PCET in Sj?din, M. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 3932-3962 and now demonstrated also for a bimolecular oxidation of unsubstituted phenol. With internal hydrogen bonds instead, the rate was no longer pH-dependent, because the proton was transferred to the carboxylate base. The results suggest that while a concerted reaction has a relatively high reorganization energy (lambda), this may be significantly reduced by the hydrogen bonds, allowing for a lower barrier reaction path. It is further suggested that this is a general mechanism by which proton-coupled electron transfer in radical enzymes and model complexes may be promoted by hydrogen bonding. This is different from, and possibly in addition to, the generally suggested effect of hydrogen bonds on PCET in enhancing the proton vibrational wave function overlap between the reactant and donor states. In addition we demonstrate how the mechanism for phenol oxidation changes from a stepwise electron transfer-proton transfer with a stronger oxidant to a CEP with a weaker oxidant, for the same series of phenols. The hydrogen bonded CEP reaction may thus allow for a low energy barrier path that can operate efficiently at low driving forces, which is ideal for PCET reactions in biological systems.     

氧杂环丁烷热解机理的量子化学研究

本文利用半经验分子轨道理论研究了氧杂环丁烷热解为甲醛和乙烯的反应机理计算是采用半经验方法AM1进行的, 各种驻点全部运用Berny梯度方法优化. 同时, 对过渡态的结构进行了振动分析的确证. 计算表明: 1)不存在协同的同面-同面反应途径的过渡态, 其驻点只是一个二级鞍点; 2) 协同的同面-异面反应途径需要经过一个能量很高的过渡态; 3)有利的反应途径是包含了双自由基中间体的分步过程。     

Mechanism for acetic acid-catalyzed ester aminolysis

A computational study is described to elucidate the mechanism for acetic acid-catalyzed ester aminolysis to produce amides. A concerted acyl substitution mechanism is proposed to involve concurrent acyl-O bond cleavage and acyl-N bond formation where acetic acid acts as a bifunctional catalyst connecting to both the alkoxide and the amino moieties. This mechanism does not involve the intermediacy of a tetraheral adduct nor the rehybridization of acyl carbon, in sharp contrast to classic stepwise acyl substitution mechanism.     

Structure and isomerization of cyclotrimetallenes

The substituent migration on the X₂Y rings (X, Y=C, Si, Ge) was studied by theoretical method with silyl and hydrogen substituents and it was found that all the reactions (with the exception of cyclopropene) proceed in a two-step mechanism via a stable intermediate. The rate determining step of the reaction is the first step. The barrier of the second step is small and the energy of the intermediate is close to that of the reactant. Both the first transition state (T1) and the intermediate (I) are of monobridge structures of different types. Since the intermediate bridge structure is almost as stable as the product, it may be observed in the substituent migration reactions.     

Double Bond Migration Mechanism in Allyl Systems Involving the Hydroxide Ion. 2. Polarizable Continuum Model (PCM)

Isomerization processes of a double bond site in propene and methylthiopropene molecules with the hydroxide ion were studied in the framework of the RHF/6-31+G*, MP2/6-31+G*, and B3LYP/6-31+G* (density functional) ab initio methods. The solvent effect was taken into account using PCM in its IEFPCM and SCIPCM versions. It is shown that to construct a reaction profile for propene rearrangement, it suffices to perform geometry optimization of stationary points within the Born–Onsager model with further refinement of the energy using IEFPCM. The reaction profiles obtained display that the multiple bond migration mechanism involving the hydroxide ion proton is energetically preferable to the two-stage mechanism forming a solvated carbanion for the propene molecule and for the methylthiopropene molecule that forms a much more stable carbanion.     

FORMATION AND CHEMILUMINESCENT DECOMPOSITION OF DIOXETANES IN THE GAS PHASE

Abstract— High resolution chemiluminescence spectra have been obtained of the singlet electronically excited products of O₂(¹Δ) plus alkene, dioxetane forming, reactions. The experiments were conducted in a flow apparatus at pressures of 1–5 torr. The spectra are a measure of the unrelaxed initial distribution of energy in the excited product. Results are reported for ethylene, 1, 1-difluoroethylene. methyl vinyl ether, ethyl vinyl ether, n -butyl vinyl ether, ketene, ketene-d₂, allene, unsymdimethyl allene, dimethyl ketene, 2-methoxy propene, 1-ethoxy propene, 2-bromo propene, and N, N- dimethyl isobutenyl amine. Chemiluminescence activation energies, representing the cycloaddition process, and absolute quantum yields for singlet excited product, ranging from 10^--⁴ to 2.5 × 10^--². are reported for 10 alkenes. Several of the reactions, 1,1-difluoroethylene, ketene, ethylene and allene give formaldehyde ¹ nπ* product with excess vibrational-rotational energy and a higher quantum yield than reactions not displaying this phenomenon. This is an indication of at least partially statistical partitioning of the energy in excess of that needed to electronically excite the formaldehyde. The experiments with ketene and ketene-d₂ provide the first evidence for the existence of unsubstituted 1,2-dioxetanone. The results from several of the experiments, particularly those with 2-methoxy propene and I-ethoxy propene are consistent with the mechanism of Goddard, which predicts regioselective and stereoselective attack of O₂(¹Δ) upon alkoxy substituted alkenes having allylic hydrogen.