Influence of hydrogen bonding on hydrogen-atom abstraction reactions of dehydropyridinium cations in the gas phase

Effects of hydrogen bonding on the gas-phase reactivity of didehydroisoquinolinium cation isomers

Two previously unreported isomeric biradicals with a 1,4-radical topology, the 1,5-didehydroisoquinolinium cation and the 4,8-didehydroisoquinolinium cation, and an additional, previously reported isomer, the 4,5-didehydroisoquinolinium cation, were studied to examine the importance of the exact location of the radical sites on their reactivities in the gas phase. The experimental results suggest that hydrogen bonding in the transition state enhances the reactivity of the 1,5-didehydroisoquinolinium cation towards tetrahydrofuran but not towards allyl iodide, dimethyl disulfide or tert-butyl isocyanide. The observation of no such enhancement of reactivity towards tetrahydrofuran for the 4,8-didehydroisoquinolinium and 4,5-didehydroisoquinolinium cations supports this hypothesis as these two biradicals are not able to engage in hydrogen bonding in their transition states for hydrogen atom abstraction from tetrahydrofuran. Quantum chemical transition state calculations indicate that abstraction of a hydrogen atom from tetrahydrofuran by the 1,5-didehydroisoquinolinium cation occurs at the C-1 radical site and that the transition state is stabilized by hydrogen bonding.

Multi-path variational transition state theory for chiral molecules: the site-dependent kinetics for abstraction of hydrogen from 2-butanol by hydroperoxyl radical, analysis of hydrogen bonding in the transition state, and dramatic temperature dependence of the activation energy

The goal of the present work is modeling the kinetics of a key reaction involved in the combustion of the biofuel 2-butanol. To accomplish this we extended multi-path variational transition state theory (MP-VTST) with the small curvature tunneling (SCT) approximation to include multistructural anharmonicity factors for molecules with chiral carbons. We use the resulting theory to predict the site-dependent rate constants of the hydrogen abstraction from 2-butanol by hydroperoxyl radical. The generalized transmission coefficients were averaged over the four lowest-energy reaction paths. The computed forward reaction rate constants indicate that hydrogen abstraction from the C-2 site has the largest contribution to the overall reaction from 200 K to 2400 K, with a contribution ranging from 99.9988% at 200 K to 88.9% at 800 K to 21.2% at 3000 K, while hydrogen abstraction from the oxygen site makes the lowest contribution at all temperatures, ranging from 2.5 × 10^-9% at 200 K to 0.65% at 800 K to 18% at 3000 K. This work highlights the importance of including the multiple-structure and torsional potential anharmonicity in the computation of the thermal rate constants. We also analyzed the role played by the hydrogen bond at the transition state, and we illustrated the risks of (a) considering only the lowest-energy conformations in the calculations of the rate constants or (b) ignoring the nonlinear temperature dependence of the activation energies. A hydrogen bond at the transition state can lower the enthalpy of activation, but raise the free energy of activation. We find an energy of activation that increases from 11 kcal mol^-1 at 200 K to more than 36 kcal mol^-1 at high temperature for this radical reaction with a biofuel molecule.

Substituent effects on the nonradical reactivity of 4-dehydropyridinium cation

Recent studies have shown that the reactivity of the 4-dehydropyridinium cation significantly differs from the reactivities of its isomers toward tetrahydrofuran. While only hydrogen atom abstraction was observed for the 2- and 3-dehydropyridinium cations, nonradical reactions were observed for the 4-isomer. In order to learn more about these reactions, the gas-phase reactivities of the 4-dehydropyridinium cation and several of its derivatives toward tetrahydrofuran were investigated in a Fourier transform ion electron resonance mass spectrometer. Both radical and nonradical reactions were observed for most of these positively charged radicals. The major parameter determining whether nonradical reactions occur was found to be the electron affinity of the radicals--only those with relatively high electron affinities underwent nonradical reactions. The reactivities of the monoradicals are also affected by hydrogen bonding and steric effects.