Modeling and simulation of free radical polymerization of styrene under semibatch reactor conditions

The first part of this approach is concerned with the elaboration of a radical polymerization model of styrenne, based on a kinetic diagram that includes chemical and thermal initiation, propagation, termination by recombination and chain transfer to the monomer. Furthermore, volume contraction during polymerization is considered, as well as the gel and glass effects. The mathematical formalism that describes the model in terms of moments is explored in detail. The model was then used to predict the changes in monomer conversion and molecular weight after intermediate addition of initiator and monomer. The results of this operation are dependent on the conditions of the reaction mass, quantity, and moment of substance addition. Therefore, the simulations were performed at different times with respect to the gel effect; before, during and after this phenomenon, and also with respect to different temperatures and initiators. Increasing the initiator concentration before the gel effect leads to an earlier appearance of the phenomenon and to a decrease in molecular weight. The ratio reveals a polydispersity index smaller for the intermediate addition of initiator. No significant changes take place during or after the gel effect. If along with the initiator, unreacted monomver (used to dissolve the initiator) enters the reactor, a small dip in conversion is observed. The general conclusion of this paper reveals the intermediate addition of initiator as a method to control polymer properties and to prevent the “dead-end” polymerization of styrene.     

Equilibrium structures of isolated (halogenated) fluorolithiomethanes

Equilibrium structures of isolated fluorolithiomethanes (1-3), chlorofluorolithiomethanes (4-6), bromofluorolithiomethanes (7-9), and bromochlorofluorolithiomethane (10) have been calculated at the HF/6-31+G(d,p) and MP2/6-31+G(d,p) levels. Depending on the number of halogens and the computational method employed, five distinct minimum structures could be recognized, viz. normal tetrahedral without coordination of halogen (T), trigonal bidentate with coordination of carbon and halogen to lithium (BCX), tetrahedral tridentate with coordination of carbon and two halogens to lithium (TCX2), quadrilateral bidentate with coordination of two halogens to lithium (BX2), and bipyramidal tridentate with coordination of three halogens to lithium (TX3).     

π -Type and σ -type cation- π complexes of atomic cations

MP2/6-31+G* calculations were performed on the cation- complexes of ethylene, cyclobutadiene and benzene with a number of atomic cations. It was found that except B⁺ all the atomic cations form -type cation- complexes with ethylene. On the other hand, with cyclobutadiene Li⁺, N⁺, Na⁺, P⁺ and K⁺ form -type complexes, whereas H⁺, F⁺, and Cl⁺ form covalent -type complexes. With benzene Li⁺, B⁺, Na⁺, Al⁺, and K⁺ form -type complexes whereas H⁺, F⁺, and Cl⁺ form -type complexes. It was concluded that the driving force to form the -type complex is chemical bonding, and that for metal cations to form -type complexes is non-covalent interaction.     

Molecular modeling of cytochrome P450 3A4

The three-dimensional structure of human cytochrome P450 3A4 was modeled based on crystallographic coordinates of four bacterial P450s: P450 BM-3, P450cam, P450terp, and P450eryF. The P450 3A4 sequence was aligned to those of the known proteins using a structure-based alignment of P450 BM-3, P450cam, P450terp, and P450eryF. The coordinates of the model were then calculated using a consensus strategy, and the final structure was optimized in the presence of water. The P450 3A4 model resembles P450 BM-3 the most, but the B helix is similar to that of P450eryF, which leads to an enlarged active site when compared with P450 BM-3, P450cam, and P450terp. The 3A4 residues equivalent to known substrate contact residues of the bacterial proteins and key residues of rat P450 2B1 are located in the active site or the substrate access channel. Docking of progesterone into the P450 3A4 model demonstrated that the substrate bound in a 6-orientation can interact with a number of active site residues, such as 114, 119, 301, 304, 305, 309, 370, 373, and 479, through hydrophobic interactions. The active site of the enzyme can also accommodate erythromycin, which, in addition to the residues listed for progesterone, also contacts residues 101, 104, 105, 214, 215, 217, 218, 374, and 478. The majority of 3A4 residues which interact with progesterone and/or erythromycin possess their equivalents in key residues of P450 2B enzymes, except for residues 297, 480 and 482, which do not contact either substrate in P450 3A4. The results from docking of progesterone and erythromycin into the enzyme model make it possible to pinpoint residues which may be important for 3A4 function and to target them for site-directed mutagenesis.     

The solvation of Li and Na in acetonitrile from ab initio-derived many-body ion–solvent potentials

Several Li⁺- and Na⁺-acetonitrile models were derived from ab initio calculations at the counterpoise-corrected MP2/TZV++(d,p) level for distorted ion-(MeCN)_n clusters with n=1, 4 and 6. Two different many-body ion-acetonitrile models were constructed: an effective three-body potential for use with the six-site effective pair model of Böhm et al., and an effective polarizable many-body model. The polarizable acetonitrile model used in the latter model is a new empirical model which was also derived in the present paper. Mainly for comparative purposes, two ion-acetonitrile pair potentials were also constructed from the ab initio cluster calculations: one pure pair potential and one effective pair potential. Using all these potential models, MD simulations in the NPT ensemble were performed for the pure acetonitrile liquid and for Li⁺(MeCN) and Na⁺(MeCN) solutions with 1 ion in 512 solvent molecules and with a simulation time of at least 120 ps per system. Thermodynamic properties, solvation-shell structure and the self-diffusion coefficient of the ions and of the solvent molecules were calculated and compared between the different models and with experimental data, where available. The Li⁺ ion is found to be four-coordinated when the new many-body potentials are used, in contrast to the six-coordinated structure obtained for the pure pair and effective pair potentials. The coordination number of Na⁺ is close to six for all the models derived here, although the coordination number becomes slightly smaller with the many-body potentials. For both ions, the solvent molecules in the first shell point their nitrogen ends towards the cation, while in the second shell the opposite orientation is the most common.     

Thermal degradation of poly(vinyl chloride)

This paper presents an initial attempt at describing poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) thermal degradation through a semi-detailed and lumped kinetic model. A mechanism of 40 species and pseudocomponents (molecules and radicals) involved in about 250 reactions permits quite a good reproduction of the main characteristics of PVC degradation and volatilization. The presence of the two step mechanism—the first step of which corresponds to dehydrochlorination and the second to the tar release and residue char formation—are correctly predicted both in quantitative terms and in the temperature ranges. The model was validated by comparison with several thermo gravimetric analyses, both dynamic at different heating rates, and isothermal. When compared with the typical one step global apparent degradation models, the approach proposed here spans quite large operative ranges, especially when it comes to predicting product distributions. The initial results of these product predictions, even though quite preliminary, are encouraging and confirm the validity of the model.     

Quantum chemistry study on B32 and B32H2–32

The structures of B32 and B₃₂H^2–₃₂ with I_h symmetry have been investigated by means of ab initio calculations at STO-3G level. The relationship between molecular orbitals of them has been analyzed and their bonding properties have been discussed. Then the possibility of their existence, as well as the similarity and difference between B₃₂ (B₃₂H^2–₃₂) and C₆₀ (C₆₀H₆₀) have been inferred.     

Anion-pi interactions in cyanuric acids: a combined crystallographic and computational study

Several structures of pi complexes of isocyanuric acid and of several thio derivatives with anions have been computed by using high level ab initio calculations. The nature of the complexes has been studied by means of the method of molecular interaction potential with polarization (MIPp) and Bader's theory of atoms-in-molecules. These molecules form favorable complexes with anions and can be used as binding units for building receptors for the molecular recognition of anions. In several cases, the anion-pi interaction has been demonstrated experimentally by means of X-ray crystallography.     

Effect of substituents (NH_2,OH,F) on structures and stability of lithofluorosilylenoids

Ｓｉｌｙｌｅｎｅｉｓｔｈｅｓｉｍｉｌａｒｉｔｙｏｆｓｉｌｉｃｏｎｔｏｃａｒｂｅｎｅ,ａｎｄ,ｌｉｋｅｃａｒｂｅｎｅｉｎｏｒｇａｎｉｃｒｅａｃｔｉｏｎｓ,ｉｔｐｌａｙｓａｖｅｒｙｉｍｐｏｒｔａｎｔｒｏｌｅｉｎｏｒｇａｎｏｓｉｌｉｃｏｎｒｅａｃｔｉｏｎｓ.Ｉｎｒｅｃｅｎｔｙｅａｒｓ,ｔｈｅｒｅｈａｖｅｂｅｅｎｍａｎｙｒｅｐｏｒｔｓｏｎｓｉｌｙｌｅｎｅｓｉｎｑｕａｎｔｕｍｃｈｅｍｉｃａｌｒｅｓｅａｒｃｈｅｓ[1—3].Ｉｎｖｅｓｔｉｇａｔｉｏｎｏｎｉｔｓｏｒｇａｎｉｃｒｅａｃｔｉｏｎｓｈｏｗｓｔｈａｔｒｅａｌｉ…     

Theoretical Study of Rotational Isomerism in Ethyl Pseudohalides

The structure and conformational stability of ethyl pseudohalides CH₃CH₂ — XCN (X = O, S, Se) were investigated using ab initiocalculations at the MP2 level of theory with a triple- basis set augmented with polarization and diffusion functions. Full optimization was performed on the minimum energy structures as well as on the transition state forms. The relative stabilities of rotational conformers were calculated at the MP4 level using MP2 optimized reference geometries. The nature of all considered stationary points was verified by calculation of the harmonic vibrational frequencies. The calculated bond lengths, bond angles, dipole moments, and rotational constants of optimized global minima structures agree very well with the corresponding experimental data obtained from microwave spectroscopic studies. Also, available experimental frequencies are in good accord with the theoretical values. For ethyl cyanate CH₃CH₂ — OCN, the antiperiplanar (trans) form is predicted to be more stable than the synclinal (gauche) form, and the synperiplanar (cis) form corresponds to the transition state. For both ethyl thiocyanate CH₃CH₂ — SCN and ethyl selenocyanate CH₃CH₂ — SeCN, the gaucheform is the global minimum while the trans-conformer is a local minimum and the cis-form is a transition state.