Entropy Changes in the Dissociation of Proton-Bound Complexes: A Variational RRKM Study

The applicability of the kinetic method for measuring relative affinities of macromolecules for polyatomic substrates

This paper is a review of the kinetic method for the determination of thermochemical values for gas-phase molecules. In addition, we have explored the utility of the kinetic method to obtain meaningful relative binding energies of macromolecules for polyatomic substrates using a system comprising poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) oligomers and doubly protonated diaminoalkanes. The major factors which determined the suitability of the kinetic method for this system were identified as (i) the structural arrangement of the parent ion complex, (ii) possible reverse activation barriers, and (iii) the evaluations of Δ(ΔS‡). Molecular mechanics/molecular dynamics (MM/MD) simulations, together with ion mobility spectrometry, suggests the parent ion complexes represent a relatively equal sharing of the substrate between two the PMMA oligomers within the complex and that the two PMMA oligomers interact almost exclusively with the substrate, and not with each other. MS/MS of the trimeric parent complexes resulted in one PMMA unit leaving as a neutral which suggests very limited coulombic repulsion (that would contribute to a reverse activation barrier). The drift times of PMMA-diaminoalkane complexes that were generated directly by ESI-MS or by dissociation of a trimeric PMMA-diaminoalkane-PMMA complex were found to be identical, and when combined with MM/MD simulations suggested that the product PMMA-diaminoalkane dication has the same conformation as it does when part of a trimeric complex. This is evidence for Δ(ΔS‡) ≃ Δ(ΔS) and using a statistical mechanics approach, Δ(ΔS) ≃ 0. The effective temperature variable in the kinetic method expression was found to decrease as a function of the size of the trimeric complex, suggesting that the population distribution of the dissociating ensemble of complexes narrows as size increases.

Gas-phase basicities of polyfunctional molecules. Part 1: Theory and methods

The experimental and theoretical methods of determination of gas-phase basicities, proton affinities and protonation entropies are presented in a tutorial form. Particularities and limitations of these methods when applied to polyfunctional molecules are emphasized. Structural effects during the protonation process in the gas-phase and their consequences on the corresponding thermochemistry are reviewed and classified. The role of the nature of the basic site (protonation on non-bonded electron pairs or on pi-electron systems) and of substituent effects (electrostatic and resonance) are first examined. Then, linear correlations observed between gas-phase basicities and ionization energies or substituent constants are recalled. Hydrogen bonding plays a special part in proton transfer reactions and in the protonation characteristics of polyfunctional molecules. A survey of the main properties of intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonding in both neutral and protonated species is proposed. Consequences on the protonation thermochemistry, particularly of polyfunctional molecules are discussed. Finally, chemical reactions which may potentially occur inside protonated clusters during the measurement of gas-phase basicities or inside a protonated polyfunctional molecule is examined. Examples of bond dissociations with hydride or alkyl migrations, proton transport catalysis, tautomerization, cyclization, ring opening and nucleophilic substitution are presented to illustrate the potentially complex chemistry that may accompany the protonation of polyfunctional molecules.

Heterogeneous Proton-Bound Dimers with a High Dipole Moment Monomer: How Could We Experimentally Observe These Anomalous Ionic Hydrogen Bonds?

Electronic structure calculations (CBS-QB3 and G3MP2) have been used to predict a suitable method to experimentally observe the anomalous structure which is predicted to exist in a proton-bound dimer with a high dipole moment monomer. The enthalpy associated with forming the proton-bound dimer from its protonated and neutral monomers is shown to be linearly related to the difference in proton affinities which has been observed experimentally. However, unlike previous experimental studies, the linear correlation is not predicted to depend strongly, if at all, on whether the basic sites are C=O, C=N, or O(H) n-donor bases. Thermochemical measurements, then, are probably not the best method to distinguish between the structures of heterogeneous proton-bound dimers. It has been shown that a suitable method to experimentally observe the anomalous structure of proton-bound dimers containing a high dipole moment monomer (or very polar monomer) is by spectroscopic measurement. The O-H+-O asymmetric stretch is probably not the best infrared band to try to correlate with structure. The best band to observe is one which is in a region of the spectrum not masked by other absorptions and is also sensitive to the proximity of the binding proton. For example, it is shown that the methanol-free O-H stretch is very sensitive to the O-H+ bond distance for a series of heterogeneous proton-bound dimers containing methanol. It is predicted that the free O-H stretch of the methanol/acetonitrile proton-bound dimer is more closely related to the O-H stretch in protonated methanol than the O-H stretch in neutral methanol. Observations of these bands should confirm that the proton is closer to methanol in the methanol/acetonitrile proton-bound dimer despite acetonitrile having a higher proton affinity.

Structures of Heterogeneous Proton-Bond Dimers with a High Dipole Moment Monomer: Covalent vs Electrostatic Interactions

A number of calculated structures of heterogeneous proton-bound dimers containing monomers such as acetonitrile, cyanamide, vinylene carbonate, and propiolactone, which have high dipole moments, are presented. These proton-bound dimers are predicted to have a structural anomaly pertaining to the bond distances between the central proton and the basic sites on each of the monomers. The monomers with the high dipole moments also have the larger proton affinity and, on the basis of difference in proton affinities, it would be expected that the proton would be closer to this monomer than the one with the lower proton affinity. However, the proton is found to lie substantially closer to the monomer with the lower proton affinity in most cases, unless the difference in proton affinity is too large. Simply stated, the difference in proton affinities is smaller than the difference in the affinity to form an ion-dipole complex for the two monomers and it is the larger affinity for the high dipole moment monomer (which also has the higher proton affinity) to form an ion-dipole complex that is responsible for the proton lying closer to the low proton affinity monomer. The bond distances between the central proton and the monomers are found to be related to the difference in proton affinity. It is found, though, that the proton-bound dimers can be grouped into two separate groups, one where the proton-bound dimer contains a high dipole moment monomer and one group where the proton-bound dimer does not contain a high dipole moment monomer. From these plots it has been determined that a high dipole moment monomer is one that has a dipole moment greater than 2.9 D.

Reaction dynamics simulations of the identity SN2 reaction H2O + HOOH2+→ H2OOH++ H2O. Requirements for reaction and competition with proton transfer

Despite the fact that the transition structure of the gas phase S(N)2 reaction H(2)O + HOOH(2)(+)--> HOOH(2)(+)+ H(2)O is well below the reactants in potential energy, the reaction has not yet been observed by experiment. Variational transition state RRKM theory reveals a strong preference for the competing proton transfer reaction H(2)O + HOOH(2)(+)--> H(3)O(+)+ HOOH due to entropy factors. Born-Oppenheimer reaction dynamics simulations confirm these results. However, by increasing the collision energy to around 7.5 eV the probability for nucleophilic substitution increases relative to proton transfer. These observations are explained by the presence of the key common intermediate HOO(H)[dot dot dot]H-OH(2)(+) which leads to effective proton transfer, but can be avoided with increasing collision energy. However, the S(N)2 probability remains below 0.2 since successful passage through the TS requires optimum initial orientation of the reactants, excitation of the relative translational motion and good phase correlation between the O-O vibration and the motion of the incoming water.

Delta(DeltaS) and Delta(DeltaS) for the competing bond cleavage reactions in (CH3CN)(ROH)H+ [R = CH3, C2H5, C3H7, (CH3)2CH]

Microcanonical variational transition-state theory was used to determine the entropies of activation for hydrogen-bond cleavage reactions leading to CH(3)CN + ROH(2)(+) in a series of acetonitrile-alcohol proton-bound pairs (CH(3)CN)(ROH)H(+) (where R = CH(3), CH(3)CH(2), CH(3)CH(2)CH(2), and (CH(3))(2)CH). In each case, the dissociation potential surface was modelled at the MP2/6-31 + G(d) level of theory. The dissociating configurations having the minimum sums-of-states were identified in each case and the resulting entropies of activation were calculated. Combined with previous work on the competing reaction leading to CH(3)CNH(+) + ROH, the results permitted the determination of the Delta(DeltaS) in each proton-bound pair. For the (CH(3)CN)(CH(3)OH)H(+) and (CH(3)CN)(CH(3)CH(2)OH)H(+) proton-bound pairs, the entropies of activation for the two dissociating channels are essentially the same [i.e., Delta(DeltaS) = 0], while Delta(DeltaS) for the propanol-containing pairs ranged between 40 and 45 J K(-1) mol(-1). The latter non-zero values are due to a combination of the location of the dividing surface in each dissociation and the rapidity with the frequencies of the vanishing vibrational modes go to zero as they are converted to product translations and rotations during the dissociation.