Theoretical study of the reaction of ethynyl radical with acetonitrile

A detailed computational study has been performed on the mechanism and kinetics of the C₂H + CH₃CN reaction. The geometries were optimized at the BHandHLYP/6–311G(d, p) level. The single-point energies were calculated using the BMC-CCSD, MC-QCISD and QCISD(T)/6–311+G(2df, 2pd) methods. Five mechanisms were investigated, namely, direct hydrogen abstraction, C-addition/elimination, N-addition/elimination, C₂H–to–CN substitution and H-migration. The kinetics of the title reaction were studied using TST and multichannel RRKM methodologies over a wide range of temperatures (150–3,000 K) and pressures (10^?4–10⁴ torr). The total rate constants show positive temperature dependence and pressure independence. At lower temperatures, the C-addition step is the most feasible channel to produce CH₃ and HCCCN. At higher temperatures, the direct hydrogen abstraction path is the dominant channel leading to C₂H₂ and CH₂CN. The calculated overall rate constants are in good agreement with the experimental data.