Effect of External Electric Fields on the C−H Bond Activation Reactivity of Nonheme Iron−Oxo Reagents

Possible B–C bonding in the hydroboration of benzonitrile by an external electric field

Generally, the hydroboration of benzonitrile produces B–N containing compound. An unprecedented B–C bond may be formed in the presence of suitable external electric field (EEF), which could influence hydroboration and control selectivity by changing its magnitude and directions.

Structure and reactivity/selectivity control by oriented-external electric fields

This is a tutorial on use of external-electric-fields (EEFs) as effectors of chemical change. The tutorial instructs readers how to conceptualize and design electric-field effects on bonds, structures, and reactions. Most effects can be comprehended as the field-induced stabilization of ionic structures. Thus, orienting the field along the "bond axis" will facilitate bond breaking. Similarly, orienting the field along the "reaction axis", the direction in which "electron pairs transform" from reactants- to products-like, will catalyse the reaction. Flipping the field's orientation along the reaction-axis will cause inhibition. Orienting the field off-reaction-axis will control stereo-selectivity and remove forbidden-orbital mixing. Two-directional fields may control both reactivity and selectivity. Increasing the field strength for concerted reactions (e.g., Diels-Alder's) will cause mechanistic-switchover to stepwise mechanisms with ionic intermediates. Examples of bond breaking and control of reactivity/selectivity and mechanisms are presented and analysed from the "ionic perspective". The tutorial projects the unity of EEF effects, "giving insight and numbers".

How an electric field can modulate the metal ion selectivity of protein binding sites: insights from DFT/PCM calculations

An electric field (internal or external) is a potent force that can modulate the metal selectivity of a protein binding site.

The regulation of hydroboration of olefins by oriented external electric field

By employing an oriented external electric field as a catalyst or inhibitor, the model reactions of the hydroboration of terminal olefins with the simplest borane were studied for the first time.

Shaping Polyyne Rods by Using an Electric Field

When a homogenous electric field is applied to polyynes (C10 and C20) perpendicular to their long axis, they bend to form an arch. The height of the arch is proportional to the intensity of the electric field. The direction of the bend and its magnitude depend on the electronic nature (donor/acceptor) of the substituents at the termini of the polyyne. The driving force for the formation of the arch is the dipole moment produced in the system parallel to the electric field. This dipole moment stems from the substituents and from additional polarization by the field. The bend of the linear polyyne fits a parabolic distortion. According to mechanical engineering analysis, this results from a moment that operates at the two end zones of the polyynes, in accordance with the natural bond order (NBO) charge distribution. It is shown that solutions relevant to beam deflection due to a central load or a uniformly distributed load are not satisfactory. Various parameters, such as the dipole moment and the height of the arch, are better correlated with σ than with σ⁺ or σ⁻. Application of the electric field to more complex systems enables the sculpting of interesting nanoshapes.

Electrostatic catalysis of a Diels-Alder reaction

It is often thought that the ability to control reaction rates with an applied electrical potential gradient is unique to redox systems. However, recent theoretical studies suggest that oriented electric fields could affect the outcomes of a range of chemical reactions, regardless of whether a redox system is involved. This possibility arises because many formally covalent species can be stabilized via minor charge-separated resonance contributors. When an applied electric field is aligned in such a way as to electrostatically stabilize one of these minor forms, the degree of resonance increases, resulting in the overall stabilization of the molecule or transition state. This means that it should be possible to manipulate the kinetics and thermodynamics of non-redox processes using an external electric field, as long as the orientation of the approaching reactants with respect to the field stimulus can be controlled. Here, we provide experimental evidence that the formation of carbon-carbon bonds is accelerated by an electric field. We have designed a surface model system to probe the Diels-Alder reaction, and coupled it with a scanning tunnelling microscopy break-junction approach. This technique, performed at the single-molecule level, is perfectly suited to deliver an electric-field stimulus across approaching reactants. We find a fivefold increase in the frequency of formation of single-molecule junctions, resulting from the reaction that occurs when the electric field is present and aligned so as to favour electron flow from the dienophile to the diene. Our results are qualitatively consistent with those predicted by quantum-chemical calculations in a theoretical model of this system, and herald a new approach to chemical catalysis.

Electric Field-Assisted Photochemical Water Splitting Should Operate with 287 nm Light

The major photoreaction of water is the homolytic splitting of one O-H bond starting from the 1(1) B1 excited state (λmax = 167 nm). This reaction produces H• and •OH radicals. The combination of two H• atoms leads to the potential energy carrier dihydrogen. However, the energy required to obtain the photoreactive 1(1) B1 electronic state is about 7.4 eV, which cannot be effectively provided by solar radiation. The sun light spectrum on earth comprises the visible and ultraviolet region, but shows vanishing intensity near 7 eV (177.1 nm). This work provides theoretical evidence that the photoreactive 1(1) B1 state of water can be shifted into the ultraviolet (UV-B) light region (≈287 nm) by including explicitly an electric field in the calculations of the water absorption spectrum. To accomplish such bathochromic shift, a large field strength of 3.08 VÅ(-1) is required. The field-dependent excitation energies were calculated by applying the symmetry-adapted cluster configuration interaction (SAC-CI) procedure. Based on this theoretical analysis, we propose that photochemical water splitting can be accomplished by means of 287 nm light provided the water molecule is favorably oriented by an external electric field and is subsequently activated by a reversal of the field orientation.

A theoretical study of the activation of nitromethane under applied electric fields

C–N activation is the key step of nitromethane decomposition.

Behaviour of cation–pi interaction in presence of external electric field

External electric field effects cation–π interaction.

Solvent effects on ion–receptor interactions in the presence of an external electric field

The solvation shells of different ions break at different electric field strengths.

Methane Activation by Iron-Carbide Cluster Anions FeC6(-)

Laser-ablation-generated and mass-selected iron-carbide cluster anions FeC6(-) were reacted with CH4 in a linear ion trap reactor under thermal collision conditions. The reactions were characterized by mass spectrometry and density functional theory calculations. Adsorption product of FeC6CH4(-) was observed in the experiments. The identified large kinetic isotope effect suggests that CH4 can be activated by FeC6(-) anions with a dissociative adsorption manner, which is further supported by the reaction mechanism calculations. The large dipole moment of FeC6(-) (19.21 D) can induce a polarization of CH4 and can facilitate the cleavage of C-H bond. This study reports the CH4 activation by transition-metal carbide anions, which provides insights into mechanistic understanding of iron-carbon centers that are important for condensed-phase catalysis.

Applications of density functional theory to iron-containing molecules of bioinorganic interest

The past decades have seen an explosive growth in the application of density functional theory (DFT) methods to molecular systems that are of interest in a variety of scientific fields. Owing to its balanced accuracy and efficiency, DFT plays particularly useful roles in the theoretical investigation of large molecules. Even for biological molecules such as proteins, DFT finds application in the form of, e.g., hybrid quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics (QM/MM), in which DFT may be used as a QM method to describe a higher prioritized region in the system, while a MM force field may be used to describe remaining atoms. Iron-containing molecules are particularly important targets of DFT calculations. From the viewpoint of chemistry, this is mainly because iron is abundant on earth, iron plays powerful (and often enigmatic) roles in enzyme catalysis, and iron thus has the great potential for biomimetic catalysis of chemically difficult transformations. In this paper, we present a brief overview of several recent applications of DFT to iron-containing non-heme synthetic complexes, heme-type cytochrome P450 enzymes, and non-heme iron enzymes, all of which are of particular interest in the field of bioinorganic chemistry. Emphasis will be placed on our own work.

Unprecedented External Electric Field Effects on S-Nitrosothiols: Possible Mechanism of Biological Regulation?

Reactions of S-nitrosothiols (RSNOs), ubiquitous carriers of nitric oxide NO and its physiological activity, are tightly regulated in biological systems, but the mechanisms of this regulation are not well understood. Here, we computationally demonstrate that RSNO properties can be dramatically altered by biologically accessible external electric fields (EEFs) by modulation of the two minor antagonistic resonance structures of RSNOs, which have opposite formal charge distributions and bonding patterns. As these resonance contributions relate to the two competing modes of RSNO reactivity with nucleophiles, via N- or S-atom directed nucleophilic attack, EEFs are predicted to be efficient in controlling biologically important RSNO reactions with thiols. For instance, EEF catalysis might be one of the mechanisms behind the high selectivity of protein trans-S-nitrosation reactions, or putative nitroxyl HNO formation via RSNO S-thiolation reactions.

Theoretical study of cyclohexane hydroxylation by three possible isomers of [FeIV(O)(R-TPEN)] 2+: does the pentadentate ligand wrapping around the metal center differently lead to the different stability and reactivity?

Density functional theory calculations have been carried out to elucidate the mechanism of cyclohexane hydroxylation by three possible isomers of [Fe(IV)(O)(N-R-N,N',N'-tris(2-pyridylmethyl)ethane-1,2-diamine)](2+) (R is methyl or benzyl) (Klinker et al. in Angew Chem Int Ed 44:3690-3694, 2005). The calculations offer a mechanistic view and reveal the following features: (a) all the three isomers possess triplet ground states and low-lying quintet excited states, (b) the relative stability follows the order isomer A > isomer B > isomer C, in agreement with the conclusions of Klinker et al., (c) the theoretical investigations provide a rationale to explain the interconversion of the three isomers, (d) the reaction pathways of the C-H hydroxylation are initiated by a hydrogen-abstraction step, and (e) the three isomers react with cyclohexane via two-state-reactivity patterns on competing triplet and quintet spin-state surfaces. As such, in the gas phase, the relative reactivity exhibits the trend isomer B > isomer A, while at the highest level, B2//B1 with zero point energy and solvation corrections, the relative reactivity follows the order isomer B > isomer A > isomer C. Thus, the calculated reaction pathway shows that pyridine rings perpendicular to the Fe-O axis result in more reactive species, and a pyridine ring coordinated trans to the oxygen atom leads to the least reactive isomer.