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Tasi DA, Czakó G. Benchmark ab initio characterization of the complex potential energy surfaces of the HOO - + CH 3Y [Y = F, Cl, Br, I] reactions. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2024; 26:16048-16059. [PMID: 38779842 DOI: 10.1039/d4cp01071j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
The α-effect is a well-known phenomenon in organic chemistry, and is related to the enhanced reactivity of nucleophiles involving one or more lone-pair electrons adjacent to the nucleophilic center. The gas-phase bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2) reactions of α-nucleophile HOO- with methyl halides have been thoroughly investigated experimentally and theoretically; however, these investigations have mainly focused on identifying and characterizing the α-effect of HOO-. Here, we perform the first comprehensive high-level ab initio mapping for the HOO- + CH3Y [Y = F, Cl, Br and I] reactions utilizing the modern explicitly-correlated CCSD(T)-F12b method with the aug-cc-pVnZ [n = 2-4] basis sets. The present ab initio characterization considers five distinct product channels of SN2: (CH3OOH + Y-), proton abstraction (CH2Y- + H2O2), peroxide ion substitution (CH3OO- + HY), SN2-induced elimination (CH2O + HY + HO-) and SN2-induced rearrangement (CH2(OH)O- + HY). Moreover, besides the traditional back-side attack Walden inversion, the pathways of front-side attack, double inversion and halogen-bond complex formation have also been explored for SN2. With regard to the Walden inversion of HOO- + CH3Cl, the previously unaddressed discrepancies concerning the geometry of the corresponding transition state are clarified. For the HOO- + CH3F reaction, the recently identified SN2-induced elimination is found to be more exothermic than the SN2 channel, submerged by ∼36 kcal mol-1. The accuracy of our high-level ab initio calculations performed in the present study is validated by the fact that our new benchmark 0 K reaction enthalpies show excellent agreement with the experimental data in nearly all cases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Domonkos A Tasi
- MTA-SZTE Lendület Computational Reaction Dynamics Research Group, Interdisciplinary Excellence Centre and Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, Institute of Chemistry, University of Szeged, Rerrich Béla tér 1, Szeged H-6720, Hungary.
| | - Gábor Czakó
- MTA-SZTE Lendület Computational Reaction Dynamics Research Group, Interdisciplinary Excellence Centre and Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, Institute of Chemistry, University of Szeged, Rerrich Béla tér 1, Szeged H-6720, Hungary.
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Nacsa AB, Tokaji C, Czakó G. High-level analytical potential-energy-surface-based dynamics of the OH - + CH 3CH 2Cl S N2 and E2 reactions in full (24) dimensions. Faraday Discuss 2024. [PMID: 38804112 DOI: 10.1039/d3fd00161j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
We develop a coupled-cluster full-dimensional global potential energy surface (PES) for the OH- + CH3CH2Cl reactive system, using the Robosurfer program package, which automatically samples configurations along PES-based trajectories as well as performs ab initio computations with Molpro and fitting with the monomial symmetrization approach. The analytical PES accurately describes both the bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2) and elimination (E2) channels leading to the Cl- + CH3CH2OH and Cl- + H2O + C2H4 products, respectively, and allows efficient quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) simulations. QCT computations on the new PES provide accurate statistically-converged integral and differential cross sections for the OH- + CH3CH2Cl reaction, revealing the competing dynamics and mechanisms of the SN2 and E2 (anti, syn, β-α transfer) channels as well as various additional pathways leading to induced inversion of the CH3CH2Cl reactant, H-exchange between the reactants, H2O⋯Cl- complex formation, and H2O + CH3CHCl- products via proton abstraction.
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Affiliation(s)
- András B Nacsa
- MTA-SZTE Lendület Computational Reaction Dynamics Research Group, Interdisciplinary Excellence Centre and Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, Institute of Chemistry, University of Szeged, Rerrich Béla tér 1, Szeged H-6720, Hungary.
| | - Csenge Tokaji
- MTA-SZTE Lendület Computational Reaction Dynamics Research Group, Interdisciplinary Excellence Centre and Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, Institute of Chemistry, University of Szeged, Rerrich Béla tér 1, Szeged H-6720, Hungary.
| | - Gábor Czakó
- MTA-SZTE Lendület Computational Reaction Dynamics Research Group, Interdisciplinary Excellence Centre and Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, Institute of Chemistry, University of Szeged, Rerrich Béla tér 1, Szeged H-6720, Hungary.
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Wu X, Bickelhaupt FM, Xie J. Solvent-induced dual nucleophiles and the α-effect in the S N2 versus E2 competition. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2024; 26:11320-11330. [PMID: 38536735 PMCID: PMC11022550 DOI: 10.1039/d4cp00671b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2024] [Accepted: 03/14/2024] [Indexed: 04/18/2024]
Abstract
We have quantum chemically investigated how microsolvation affects the various E2 and SN2 pathways, their mutual competition, and the α-effect of the model reaction system HOO-(H2O)n + CH3CH2Cl, at the CCSD(T) level. Interestingly, we identify the dual nature of the α-nucleophile HOO- which, upon solvation, is in equilibrium with HO-. This solvent-induced dual appearance gives rise to a rich network of competing reaction channels. Among both nucleophiles, SN2 is always favored over E2, and this preference increases upon increasing microsolvation. Furthermore, we found a pronounced α-effect, not only for SN2 substitution but also for E2 elimination, i.e., HOO- is more reactive than HO- in both cases. Our activation strain and quantitative molecular orbital analyses reveal the physical mechanisms behind the various computed trends. In particular, we demonstrate that two recently proposed criteria, required for solvent-free nucleophiles to display the α-effect, must also be satisfied by microsolvated HOO-(H2O)n nucleophiles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiangyu Wu
- Key Laboratory of Cluster Science of Ministry of Education, Beijing Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic/Electrophotonic Conversion Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China.
| | - F Matthias Bickelhaupt
- Department of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, AIMMS, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1108, 1081 HZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM), Radboud University Nijmegen, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa
| | - Jing Xie
- Key Laboratory of Cluster Science of Ministry of Education, Beijing Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic/Electrophotonic Conversion Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China.
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Liu X, Guo W, Feng H, Pang B, Wu Y. Competition between Elimination and Substitution for Ambident Nucleophiles CN - and Iodoethane Reactions in Gaseous and Aqueous Medium. J Phys Chem A 2023; 127:7373-7382. [PMID: 37639466 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c04630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
Nucleophilic substitution (SN2) and elimination (E2) reactions between ambident nucleophiles have long been considered as typical reactions in organic chemistry, and exploring the competition between the two reactions is of great importance in chemical synthesis. As a nucleophile, CN- can use its C and N atoms as the reactive centers to undergo E2 and SN2 reactions, but related research is currently limited. This study uses the CCSD(T)/pp/t//MP2/ECP/d electronic structure method to perform detailed investigations on the potential energy profiles for SN2 and E2 reactions between CN- and CH3CH2I in gaseous and aqueous media. The potential energy profiles reveal that the energy barriers for SN2 and E2 reactions with the C atom as the reactive center are consistently lower than those with the N atom, indicating that the C atom has a stronger nucleophilic ability and stronger basicity. Furthermore, the potential energy profiles in both gas and aqueous environments show that the barriers of SN2 reactions are lower than those for E2 reactions with both C and N as the attacking atom. By using the frontier molecular orbital and activation strain models to explain the interesting phenomenon, the transition from the gas phase to solution was investigated, specifically in the gas-microsolvation-water transition. The results show that water molecules reduce the nucleophilicity and basicity of CN-, while strain energy (ΔEstrain) causes a greater increase in the energy barrier for E2 reactions. This study provides new insights and perspectives on the understanding of CN- as a nucleophile in SN2 reactions and serves as theoretical guidance for organic synthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xu Liu
- College of Chemistry, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, P. R. China
| | - Wenyu Guo
- College of Chemistry, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, P. R. China
| | - Huining Feng
- College of Chemistry, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, P. R. China
| | - Boxue Pang
- Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education on Safe Mining of Deep Metal Mines, School of Resources and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
| | - Yang Wu
- College of Chemistry, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, P. R. China
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Zhen W, Zhao S, Fu G, Wang H, Sun J, Yang L, Zhang J. Effects of Methyl Substitution and Leaving Group on E2/S N2 Competition for Reactions of F - with RY (R = CH 3, C 2H 5, iC 3H 7, tC 4H 9; Y = Cl, I). Molecules 2023; 28:6269. [PMID: 37687098 PMCID: PMC10488877 DOI: 10.3390/molecules28176269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2023] [Revised: 08/22/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The competition between base-induced elimination (E2) and bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2) is of significant importance in organic chemistry and is influenced by many factors. The electronic structure calculations for the gas-phase reactions of F- + RY (R = CH3, C2H5, iC3H7, tC4H9, and Y = Cl, I) are executed at the MP2 level with aug-cc-pVDZ or ECP/d basis set to investigate the α-methyl substitution effect. The variation in barrier height, reaction enthalpy, and competition of SN2/E2 as a function of methyl-substitution and leaving group ability has been emphasized. And the nature of these rules has been explored. As the degree of methyl substitution on α-carbon increases, the E2 channel becomes more competitive and dominant with R varying from C2H5, iC3H7, to tC4H9. Energy decomposition analysis offers new insights into the competition between E2 and SN2 processes, which suggests that the drop in interaction energy with an increasing degree of substitution cannot compensate for the rapid growth of preparation energy, leading to a rapid increase in the SN2 energy barrier. By altering the leaving group from Cl to I, the barriers of both SN2 and E2 monotonically decrease, and, with the increased number of substituents, they reduce more dramatically, which is attributed to the looser transition state structures with the stronger leaving group ability. Interestingly, ∆E0‡ exhibits a positive linear correlation with reaction enthalpy (∆H) and halogen electronegativity. With the added number of substituents, the differences in ∆E0‡ and ∆H between Y = Cl and I likewise exhibit good linearity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Li Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China; (W.Z.); (S.Z.); (G.F.); (H.W.); (J.S.)
| | - Jiaxu Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China; (W.Z.); (S.Z.); (G.F.); (H.W.); (J.S.)
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Wu X, Zhang S, Xie J. Investigating the competing E2 and S N2 mechanisms for the microsolvated HO -(H 2O) n=0-4 + CH 3CH 2X (X = Cl, Br, I) reactions. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:12993-13005. [PMID: 35582984 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp04010c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
We characterized the anti-E2, syn-E2, inv-SN2, and ret-SN2 reaction channels for the reaction of microsolvated HO-(H2O)n anions with CH3CH2X (X = Cl, Br, I), using the CCSD(T)/PP/t//MP2/ECP/d level method, to understand how a solvent influences the competing E2 and SN2 reactions. The calculated sequence of barrier for the four channels is ret-SN2 > syn-E2 > anti-E2 > inv-SN2. The barrier heights increase with incremental hydration as the system transfers from the gas phase to microsolvation, and to bulk solvation (using the PCM implicit solvent model). As the degree of hydration n increases, good correlations have been found between barrier heights and several thermodynamic, geometric and charge parameters, including the reaction enthalpy, proton/ethyl-cation affinity of the hydrated nucleophile, geometric looseness (%L‡) and asymmetry (%AS‡) and charge asymmetry (Δq(X-O)) of the transition structures. Under a molecular orbital scheme, the HOMOs of nucleophiles are stabilized by stepwise hydration, explaining the rise in the barriers. Considering the effect of the leaving group, the barrier heights exhibit linear correlation with the halogen electronegativity and H-acidity of substrate CH3CH2X. In terms of E2/SN2 competition, the barrier difference, , first increases then decreases as the number of explicit water molecules increases, under both microsolvation and bulk solvation conditions, but the inv-SN2 pathway is always favored over the anti-E2 pathway. Energy decomposition analysis attributes the increase of barrier difference to the greater geometric distortion in the anti-E2 transition structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiangyu Wu
- Key Laboratory of Cluster Science of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
| | - Shaowen Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Cluster Science of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
| | - Jing Xie
- Key Laboratory of Cluster Science of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
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Tachikawa H. Reaction mechanism of an intracluster S N2 reaction induced by electron capture. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:3941-3950. [PMID: 35098286 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp04697g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2) reactions have been widely investigated from both experimental and theoretical points of view because they represent one of the simplest organic reactions. Most studies on SN2 reactions have been focused on bimolecular collision. In contrast, information on intracluster SN2 reactions is limited. In this study, an intracluster SN2 reaction of NF3-CH3Cl triggered by electron attachment was investigated using a direct ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) method. In the structure of NF3-CH3Cl, the N-F bond in NF3 is oriented collinearly toward the carbon atom of CH3Cl. After electron capture by NF3-CH3Cl, the F- ion that is generated from the (NF3)- moiety collides with the carbon atom of CH3Cl. The intracluster SN2 reaction occurs as follows: (NF3-CH3Cl)- (electron capture state) → NF2-(F-)-CH3Cl (pre-reaction complex) → transition state (TS) → NF2-CH3F-Cl- (post-reaction complex) → NF2 + CH3F + Cl- (product state). The reaction energy is efficiently transferred to the translational mode of Cl-, and the Cl- ion with a high translational energy is then removed from the system. This energy is significantly larger than that of Cl- formed in the bimolecular SN2 reaction (F- + CH3Cl). The reaction mechanism is discussed based on the theoretical results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hiroto Tachikawa
- Division of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan.
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