A reinvestigation of the deceptively simple reaction of toluene with OH, and the fate of the benzyl radical: a combined thermodynamic and kinetic study on the competition between OH-addition and H-abstraction reactions

Theoretical investigation on the mechanisms and kinetics of OH/NO3-initiated atmospheric oxidation of vanillin and vanillic acid

Vanillin and vanillic acid are two kinds of lignin pyrolysis products that are generated by biomass combustion. The gas-phase oxidation mechanisms of vanillin and vanillic acid initiated by OH/NO₃ radicals were investigated by using density functional theory (DFT) at M06-2X/6-311+G(3df,2p)//M06-2X/6-311+G(d,p) level. The initial reactions of vanillin and vanillic acid with OH/NO₃ radicals can be divided into two patterns: OH/NO₃ addition and H-atom abstraction. For vanillin reacted with OH radical, the OH addition mainly occurs at C2-position to produce highly chemically activated intermediate (IM2). The oxidation products 3,4-dihydroxy benzaldehyde, malealdehyde, methyl hydrogen oxalate, methylenemalonaldehyde, carbonyl and carbonyl compounds are formed by the subsequent reactions of IM2. H-atom abstracting from aldehyde group occurs more easily than from the other positions. In addition, vanillin reacting with NO₃ radicals principally proceeds via NO₃-addition at C1 sites and H-atom abstracting from OH group (C1) to generate HNO₃. The primary reaction mechanisms of vanillic acid with OH/NO₃ radicals were similar to vanillin. The Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) theory was performed to calculate the rate constants of the significant elementary reactions. The total rate constants for OH-initiated oxidation of vanillin and vanillic acid are 5.72 × 10^-12 and 5.40 × 10^-12 cm³ molecule^-1 s^-1 at 298 K and 1 atm. The atmospheric lifetimes were predicted to be 48.56 h and 51.44 h, respectively. As a supplement, the kinetic calculations of NO₃ radicals with two reactants were also discussed. This work investigates the atmospheric oxidation processes of vanillin and vanillic acid, and hopes to provide useful information for further experimental research.

Reinvestigation of the Deceptively Simple Reaction of Toluene with OH and the Fate of the Benzyl Radical: The "Hidden" Routes to Cresols and Benzaldehyde

In a previous work, we have investigated the initial steps of the reaction of toluene with the hydroxyl radical using several quantum chemical approaches including density functional and composite post-Hartree-Fock models. Comparison of H-abstraction from the methyl group and additions at different positions of the phenyl ring showed that the former reaction channel is favored at room temperature. This conclusion appears at first sight incompatible with the experimental observation of a lower abundance of the product obtained from abstraction (benzaldehyde) with respect to those originating from addition (cresols). Further reactions of the intermediate radicals with oxygen, water, and additional OH radicals are explored in this paper through theoretical calculations on more than 120 species on the corresponding potential energy surface. The study of the addition reactions, to obtain the cresols through hydroxy methylcyclodienyl intermediate radicals, showed that only in the case of o-cresol the reaction proceeds by addition of O₂ to the ring, internal H-transfer, and hydroperoxyl abstraction and not through direct H-abstraction. For both p- and m-cresol, instead, the reaction occurs through a higher-energy direct H-abstraction, thus explaining in part the observed larger concentration of the ortho isomer in the final products. It was also found that the benzyl radical, formed by H-abstraction from the methyl group, is able to react further if additional OH is present. Two reaction paths leading to o-cresol, two leading to p-cresol, and one leading to m-cresol were determined. Moreover, in this situation, the benzyl radical is predicted to produce benzyl alcohol, as was found in some experiments. The commonly accepted route to benzaldehyde was found to be not the energetically favored one. Instead, a route leading to the benzoyl radical (and ultimately to benzoic acid) with the participation of one water molecule was clearly more favorable, both thermodynamically and kinetically.

New theoretical insights into the reaction kinetics of toluene and hydroxyl radicals

This work provides theoretical insights into the kinetics of toluene + OH, focusing on the anharmonic effect and the accuracy of barrier heights.