Double methyl substitution in simple alkenes leads to low-barrier reactions towards molecular fluorine

Reaction of limonene with F2: rate coefficient and products

The kinetics of the reaction of limonene (C10H16) with F2 has been studied using a low pressure (P = 1 Torr) and a high pressure turbulent (P = 100 Torr) flow reactor coupled with an electron impact ionization and chemical ionization mass spectrometers, respectively: F2 + Limonene → products (1). The rate constant of the title reaction was determined under pseudo-first-order conditions by monitoring either limonene or F2 decay in excess of F2 or C10H16, respectively. The reaction rate constant, k1 = (1.15 ± 0.25) × 10(-12) exp(160 ± 70)/T) was determined over the temperature range 278-360 K, independent of pressure between 1 (He) and 100 (N2) Torr. F atom and HF were found to be formed in reaction 1 , with the yields of 0.60 ± 0.13 and 0.39 ± 0.09, respectively, independent of temperature in the range 296-355 K.

Dynamics of reactions between two closed-shell molecules

The crossed molecular beam technique has been utilized to investigate a large number of elementary reactions. However, most of the studied reactions involve atoms or radicals; reactions between two stable molecular reactants are, in fact, seldom studied with the crossed molecular beam method. In this perspective, reactions between two stable molecules are reviewed and discussed. With crossed molecular beams and vacuum UV photoionization, the nascent products have been unambiguously identified. Consistent pictures of the reaction paths have been constructed based on the experimental data and ab initio calculations. Furthermore, there are intriguing features about the reaction barriers. The F(2) + organosulfur reactions are barrierless, demonstrating the first examples of such interactions between two closed-shell reactants. The barrier of F(2) + alkene reaction decreases with more methyl substitution groups at the C=C double bond, yet the absolute barrier heights from experiment and theory disagree with each other by ~2 kcal mol(-1), leaving an issue to be resolved in the future.