MNDO MO theoretical study of electronic structure and homolytic dissociation of perfluoroalkanoyl peroxides

The MNDO molecular orbital method was applied to alkanoyl peroxides and the effect of fluorination on the electronic structure and the rate of the homolytic 0-0 cleavage of alkanoyl peroxides were analyzed. The fluorine atom introduced at the carbon atom makes the peroxy 0-0 bond long and the dihedral angle between two COO planes large. The analysis of two-atom energy and its components energies has shown that the rate of the 0-0 cleavage correlates well with the destabilization of the resonance energy of the 0-0 bond and not with the electrostatic energy. The effect of elongation of the perfluoroalkyl group is also well elucidated by the two-atom energy. The perfluoroalkyl group lowers the σ*(0-0) anti-bonding orbital considerably, and this fully explains the observed rate of induced decomposition of perfluoroalkanoyl peroxides with benzene.