Internal rotation in peroxynitrous acid (ONOOH)

UV-spectrum and photodecomposition of peroxynitrous acid in the troposphere

The UV spectrum of peroxynitrous acid, HOONO, was computed at the B3LYP/AVTZ and MCSCF/AVTZ levels using the fewest switches surface hopping algorithm. Due to large-amplitude vibrational motions of this molecule, the maxima in the simulated spectra are displaced from the positions of vertical excitations. The three lowest excited electronic singlet states, which are all repulsive, can be reached by UV absorption. The photolysis products are determined, and the photolysis rate constant is provided for the first time. We found that near the tropopause the photolysis rate constant J ≈ 6 × 10-4 s-1, exceeds that for thermal decomposition by two orders of magnitude. The photolysis lifetime is about 30 minutes. Thus, photolysis is an important process and should be included in atmospheric models.

Mechanistic Insight into Permeation of Plasma-Generated Species from Vacuum into Water Bulk

Due to their potential benefits, cold atmospheric plasmas (CAPs), as biotechnological tools, have been used for various purposes, especially in medical and agricultural applications. The main effect of CAP is associated with reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). In order to deliver these RONS to the target, direct or indirect treatment approaches have been employed. The indirect method is put into practice via plasma-activated water (PAW). Despite many studies being available in the field, the permeation mechanisms of RONS into water at the molecular level still remain elusive. Here, we performed molecular dynamics simulations to study the permeation of RONS from vacuum into the water interface and bulk. The calculated free energy profiles unravel the most favourable accumulation positions of RONS. Our results, therefore, provide fundamental insights into PAW and RONS chemistry to increase the efficiency of PAW in biological applications.

Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species at Phospholipid Bilayers: Peroxynitrous Acid and Its Homolysis Products

Peroxynitrite is a powerful and long-lived oxidant generated in vivo. Peroxynitrous acid (ONOOH), its protonated form, may penetrate into phospholipid bilayers and undergo homolytic cleavage to nitrogen dioxide (·NO₂) and hydroxyl radicals (·OH), causing severe nitro-oxidative damage. The membrane environment is thought to influence ONOOH reactions, but the mechanisms remain speculative. Most experimental techniques lack the level of resolution required to keep track of the motion of very reactive species and their interactions with the membrane. Here, we performed molecular dynamics simulations of the permeation, interactions, and dynamics of ONOOH and its homolysis products in the phospholipid membrane environment. We started by developing an ONOOH model that successfully accounted for its conformational equilibria and solvation energies. Membrane permeation of ONOOH was accompanied by conformational changes. ONOOH exhibited a strong tendency to bind to and accumulate at the membrane headgroup region. There, ONOOH homolysis led to ·NO₂ radicals, which in turn partitioned to the membrane interior. About one-third of the ·OH radicals readily escaped to the aqueous phase within 1 ns. However, a significant number of ·OH radicals became trapped at the lipid headgroup region for a longer period. The possible implications for membrane-based nitration and oxidation processes were discussed.

A Database of Formation Enthalpies of Nitrogen Species by Compound Methods (CBS-QB3, CBS-APNO, G3, G4)

Accurate thermochemical data for compounds containing C/H/N/O are required to underpin kinetics simulation and modeling of the reactions of these species in different environments. There is a dearth of experimental data so computational quantum chemistry has stepped in to fill this breach and to verify whether particular experiments are in need of revision. A number of composite model chemistries (CBS-QB3, CBS-APNO, G3, and G4) are used to compute theoretical atomization energies and hence enthalpies of formation at 0 and 298.15 K, and these are benchmarked against the best available compendium of values, the Active Thermochemical Tables or ATcT. In general the agreement is very good for some 28 species with the only discrepancy being for hydrazine. It is shown that, although individually the methods do not perform that well, collectively the mean unsigned error is <1.7 kJ mol(-1); hence, this approach provides a useful tool to screen published values and validate new experimental results. Using multiple model chemistries does have some drawbacks but can produce good results even for challenging molecules like HOON and CN2O2. The results for these smaller validated molecules are then used as anchors for determining the formation enthalpies of larger species such as methylated hydrazines and diazenes, five- and six-membered heterocyclics via carefully chosen isodesmic working reactions with the aim of resolving some discrepancies in the literature and establishing a properly validated database. This expanded database could be useful in testing the performance of computationally less-demanding density function methods with newer functionals that have the capacity to treat much larger systems than those tested here.

Second OH overtone excitation and statistical dissociation dynamics of peroxynitrous acid

The second OH overtone transition of the trans-perp conformer of peroxynitrous acid (tp-HOONO) is identified using infrared action spectroscopy. HOONO is produced by the recombination of photolytically generated OH and NO(2) radicals, and then cooled in a pulsed supersonic expansion. The second overtone transition is assigned to tp-HOONO based on its vibrational frequency (10 195.3 cm(-1)) and rotational band contour, which are in accord with theoretical predictions and previous observations of the first overtone transition. The transition dipole moment associated with the overtone transition is rotated considerably from the OH bond axis, as evident from its hybrid band composition, indicating substantial charge redistribution upon OH stretch excitation. The overtone band exhibits homogeneous line broadening that is attributed to intramolecular vibrational redistribution, arising from the coupling of the initially excited OH stretch to other modes that ultimately lead to dissociation. The quantum state distributions of the OH X (2)Pi (nu=0) products following first and second OH overtone excitation of tp-HOONO are found to be statistical by comparison with three commonly used statistical models. The product state distributions are principally determined by the tp-HOONO binding energy of 16.2(1) kcal mol(-1). Only a small fraction of the OH products are produced in nu=1 following the second overtone excitation, consistent with statistical predictions.

Quantum study on the branching ratio of the reaction NO2+OH

A reduced dimensionality (RD) approximation is developed for the title reaction which treats the angle of approach of the hydroxyl radical to the nitrogen dioxide molecule and the radial distance between the two species explicitly. All other degrees of freedom are treated adiabatically. Electronic structure calculations at the complete active space self-consistent field level are used to fit a potential energy surface (PES) in these two coordinates. Within this RD model the adiabatic capture centrifugal sudden approximation is used to calculate the high pressure limit rate constant. A correction for reflection from the PES due to rotationally nonadiabatic transitions is applied using the wave packet capture approximation. The branching ratio for the title reaction is calculated for the atmospherically significant temperature range of 200-400 K at 20 Torr without distinguishing between the conformers of HOONO. The result is k(HOONO)k(HNO(3) )=0.051 at 20 Torr and 300 K, which is in good agreement with the measured branching ratio between cis-cis-HOONO and nitric acid. This suggests that most of the different conformers of HOONO were converted to the most stable cis-cis conformer on the time scale of the measurements made.

Constraining the Mechanism and Kinetics of OH + NO2 and HO2 + NO Using the Multiple-Well Master Equation

Several recent experimental studies have provided substantial new constraints for the mechanisms on the HNO3 potential energy surface. These include observations of biexponential OH decay over short time scales from OH + NO2, which constrain key properties of the short-lived HOONO intermediate, observations of both conformers of the HOONO intermediate itself, isotopic scrambling data for 18OH + NO2, and observations of HONO2 production from the HO2 + NO reaction. We combine all of these recent data in a master-equation simulation of the system. This simulation is initialized with computational values for both stable species (wells) and transition states, but parameters are then adjusted to fit the observations. All parameters are kept within limits defined by experimental and theoretical uncertainty, and all converge away from their bounds. The primary fitting is carried out on the OH kinetic data-we first fit the biexponential kinetics, then address the isotopic scrambling. Isotopic scrambling is shown to be rapid but not complete at low pressure, while at least two parameter sets are shown to be consistent with the biexponential data. Of these two parameter sets, one is far more consistent with recent observations of trans-HOONO decay, isotopic scrambling, and HONO2 production from HO2 + NO. This we regard as the most probable potential energy surface for the reaction. On this PES, cis-trans isomerization for HOONO is slow but isomerization of trans-HOONO to HONO2 is rapid. This has significant implications for observed HOONO behavior and also HONO2 formation in the atmosphere from both HO2 + NO and OH + NO2.

Spectroscopic Characterization of Peroxynitrous Acid in cis-perp Configurations

This paper presents experimental evidence, supported by two-dimensional theoretical calculations, that HOONO can be observed in cis-perp (cp) configurations in a pulsed supersonic expansion. The spectral properties (transition frequency, rotational constants, and transition type) of OH overtone transitions originating from a state with predominately cp character are predicted theoretically and compared with those associated with a weak feature at 6996.2 cm(-1) observed experimentally using infrared action spectroscopy. This spectral feature is attributed to HOONO in cp configurations based on its vibrational frequency, rotational band contour, and resultant OH product state distribution.

Reaction of OH + NO2: High Pressure Experiments and Falloff Analysis

High pressure experiments on the OH + NO2 reaction are presented for 3 different temperatures. At 300 K, experiments in He (p = 2-500 bar) as well as in Ar (p = 2-4 bar) were performed. The rate constants obtained in Ar agree well with values which have been reported earlier by our group (Forster, R.; Frost, M.; Fulle, D.; Hamann, H. F.; Hippler, H.; Schlepegrell, A.; Troe, J. J. Chem. Phys. 1995, 103, 2949. Fulle, D.; Hamann, H. F.; Hippler, H.; Troe, J. J. Chem. Phys. 1998, 108, 5391). In contrast, the rate coefficients determined in He were found to be 15-25% lower than the values given in our earlier publications. Additionally, results for He as bath gas at elevated temperatures (T = 400 K, p = 3-150 bar; T = 600 K, p = 3-150 bar) are reported. The results obtained at elevated pressures are found to be in good agreement with existing literature data. The observed falloff behavior is analyzed in terms of the Troe formalism taking into account two reaction channels: one yielding HNO3 and one yielding HOONO. It is found that the extracted parameters are in agreement with rate constants for vibrational relaxation and isotopic scrambling as well as with experimentally determined branching ratios. Based on our analysis we determine falloff parameters to calculate the rate constant for atmospheric conditions.

Quasiclassical Trajectory Simulations of OH(v) + NO2 → HONO2* → OH(v‘) + NO2: Capture and Vibrational Deactivation Rate Constants

Quasiclassical trajectory calculations are used to investigate the dynamics of the OH(v) + NO(2) --> HONO(2) --> OH(v') + NO(2) recombination/dissociation reaction on an analytic potential energy surface (PES) that gives good agreement with the known structure and vibrational frequencies of nitric acid. The calculated recombination rate constants depend only weakly on temperature and on the initial vibrational energy level of OH(v). The magnitude of the recombination rate constant is sensitive to the potential function describing the newly formed bond and to the switching functions in the PES that attenuate inter-mode interactions at long range. The lifetime of the nascent excited HONO(2) depends strongly not only on its internal energy but also on the identity of the initial state, in disagreement with statistical theory. This disagreement is probably due to the effects of slow intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) from the initially excited OH stretching mode. The vibrational energy distribution of product OH(v') radicals is different from statistical distributions, a result consistent with the effects of slow IVR. Nonetheless, the trajectory results predict that vibrational deactivation of OH(v) via the HONO(2) transient complex is approximately 90% efficient, almost independent of initial OH(v) vibrational level, in qualitative agreement with recent experiments. Tests are also carried out using the HONO(2) PES, but assuming the weaker O-O bond strength found in HOONO (peroxynitrous acid). In this case, the predicted vibrational deactivation efficiencies are significantly lower and depend strongly on the initial vibrational state of OH(v), in disagreement with experiments. This disagreement suggests that the actual HOONO PES may contain more inter-mode coupling than found in the present model PES, which is based on HONO(2). For nitric acid, the measured vibrational deactivation rate constant is a useful proxy for the recombination rate, but IVR randomization of energy is not complete, suggesting that the efficacy of the proxy method must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

The OH-stretching and OOH-bending overtone spectrum of HOONO

We have simulated the HOONO vibrational overtone spectrum with use of a local mode Hamiltonian that includes the OH-stretching, OOH-bending, and NOOH-torsional modes and coupling between all three modes. The local mode parameters and the dipole moment function are calculated with coupled-cluster ab initio theory and an augmented Dunning-type triple-zeta basis set. We investigate the accuracy of the local mode parameters obtained from two different potential-energy fitting routines, as well as the sensitivity of these parameters to the basis set employed. We compare our simulated spectra to previously published action spectra in the first and second OH-stretching overtone regions. In addition we have recorded the spectrum in the OH-stretch and OOH-bend combination region around 7700 cm-1 and we also compare to this. Our simulated spectrum is in qualitative agreement with experiment in the first and second OH-stretching overtone and in the stretch-bend regions.