András Stirling

On the Mechanism of B(C6F5)3-Catalyzed Direct Hydrogenation of Imines: Inherent and Thermally Induced Frustration

The reaction mechanism for the transition metal free direct hydrogenation of bulky imines catalyzed by the Lewis acid B(C6F5)3 is investigated in detail by quantum chemical calculations. A recently introduced mechanistic model of heterolytic hydrogen splitting that is based on noncovalent association of bulky Lewis acid-base pairs is shown to account for the reactivity of imine-borane as well as amine-borane systems. Possible catalytic cycles are examined, and the results provide solid support for the imine reduction pathway proposed from experimental observations. In addition, the feasibility of an autocatalytic route initiated by amine-borane hydrogen cleavage is demonstrated. Conceptual issues regarding the notion of frustration are also discussed. The observed reactivity is interpreted in terms of thermally induced frustration, which refers to thermal activation of strained dative adducts of bulky Lewis donor-acceptor pairs to populate their reactive frustrated complex forms.

Density functional study of nitrogen oxides

Equilibrium geometries, bond dissociation energies, dipole moments, harmonic vibrational frequencies, and infrared intensities were calculated for a set of ten neutral nitrogen oxides (NO, NO2, NO3, N2O, sym N2O2, asym N2O3, sym N2O3, sym N2O4, asym N2O4, and N2O5) by applying one local and two gradient‐corrected nonlocal functionals in a Gaussian‐type‐orbital density functional method. Comparison with available experimental data shows that, except for the bond dissociation energies, the local functional gives very accurate molecular properties. Nonlocal functionals considerably improve the bond dissociation energies, but the results still overestimate the experimental values by about 10 kcal/mol on average. For the other properties, the results obtained with nonlocal functionals are not necessarily superior to those calculated with the local functional. The properties of two molecules (sym N2O3 and asym N2O4) are predicted for the first time and several reassignments are proposed in the vibrational spect...

Reactivity Models of Hydrogen Activation by Frustrated Lewis Pairs: Synergistic Electron Transfers or Polarization by Electric Field?

Two alternative qualitative reactivity models have recently been proposed to interpret the facile heterolytic cleavage of H2 by frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs). Both models assume that the reaction takes place via reactive intermediates with preorganized acid/base partners; however, they differ in the mode of action of the active centers. In the electron transfer (ET) model, the hydrogen activation is associated with synergistic electron donation processes with the simultaneous involvement of active centers and the bridging hydrogen, showing similarity to transition-metal-based and other H2-activating systems. In contrast, the electric field (EF) model suggests that the heterolytic bond cleavage occurs as a result of polarization by the strong EF present in the cavity of the reactive intermediates. To assess the applicability of the two conceptually different mechanistic views, we examined the structural and electronic rearrangements as well as the EFs along the H2 splitting pathways for a representative set of reactions. The analysis reveals that electron donations developing already in the initial phase are general characteristics of all studied reactions, and the related ET model provides qualitative interpretation for the main features of the reaction pathways. On the other hand, several arguments have emerged that cast doubt on the relevance of EF effects as a conceptual basis in FLP-mediated hydrogen activation.

Concerted attack of frustrated Lewis acid–base pairs on olefinic double bonds: a theoretical study

A computational approach reveals cooperative action of the preorganized acidic and basic centers of the frustrated P(t-Bu)(3)/B(C(6)F(5))(3) Lewis pair on olefinic bonds as the key to the observed regioselective addition reaction.

Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation of the adsorption of CO2 on silicalite and NaZSM-5

The adsorption of carbon dioxide in silicalite and NaZSM-5 zeolite has been studied using new Monte Carlo software. In this program, sodium cations and framework are movable during the simulation. The calculated adsorption isotherms are in good agreement with the experimental results. The energy distribution of carbon dioxide over silicalite and NaZSM-5 shows that the increase of the adsorption energy for NaZSM-5 is mainly due the electric field generated by sodium cations.

Ab initio simulation of water interaction with the (100) surface of pyrite

Car–Parrinello simulations have been performed to study the interaction of water with pyrite (100) surface. The stability and the structural and electronic properties of both the molecular and dissociative adsorptions have been addressed. We found a very strong preference for molecular adsorption on the surface iron sites, in agreement with experiment. The dissociative chemisorption of water is energetically disfavored and is even locally unstable; the dissociated fragments transform back to the stable molecular form in a short molecular dynamics run. The calculations revealed that hydrogen bonding plays an important role in the stabilization of the adsorbed water for both the molecular and the dissociative states. We have shown that water forms a coordinative covalent bond with the surface iron atoms by donating electron to the empty iron dz2 orbitals which are the lowest empty states on the clean surface. At full coverage, the sulfur 3p states thus become the lowest available empty states and therefore ...

H2CO3 Forms via HCO3− in Water

According to the generally accepted picture of CO(2) dissolution in water, the formation of H(2)CO(3) proceeds in a single step that involves the attack of a water oxygen on the CO(2) carbon in concert with a proton transfer to a CO(2) oxygen. In the present work, a series of ab initio molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out along with the metadynamics technique which reveals a stepwise mechanism: the reaction of a water molecule with CO(2) yields HCO(3)(-) as an intermediate and a hydronium ion, whereas the protonation of the CO(2) moiety occurs in a separate step representing a well-defined activation barrier toward the H(2)CO(3) molecule. This alternative scenario was already taken into consideration decades ago, but subsequent experiments and calculations have given preference to the concerted mechanism. Employing extended periodic models of the CO(2)-water system that mimic the bulk aqueous environment, the present simulations yield the complete free energy profile of the stepwise mechanism and provide a detailed microscopic mechanism of the elementary steps. HCO(3)(-) formation is found to be the rate-determining step of the entire CO(2) hydration process.

Raman intensities from Kohn–Sham calculations

Raman intensity calculations have been performed for nine small main‐group molecules using the Kohn–Sham density functional method. A combination of numerical and analytic derivation techniques was used as implemented in the program package DEMON. The effect of the applied functional, the basis set augmentation, and the numerical fitting of the exchange‐correlation potential have been investigated along with other aspects of the computations. The results obtained at the local level using valence triple‐zeta plus 2 polarization functions (VTZP+) basis sets compare well with experiment and with the results obtained from the Hartree–Fock and correlation methods using large basis sets, whereas nonlocal corrections did not yield improvements in the predicted local Raman intensities. Systematic analysis proved the sensitivity of the results obtained with the gradient corrected nonlocal functional to the numerical fitting applied in the calculations of the exchange‐correlation terms. We demonstrated that omitting the fitting procedure from nonlocal calculations improves the quality of the Raman intensities while the grid used for fitting does not have an influence on the Raman intensities. Effects of the reference geometry, step size for evaluating the numerical derivatives and the threshold of energy convergence were also tested.

The Wacker Process: Inner- or Outer-Sphere Nucleophilic Addition? New Insights from Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics

The Wacker process consists of the oxidation of ethylene catalyzed by a Pd(II) complex. The reaction mechanism has been largely debated in the literature; two modes for the nucleophilic addition of water to a Pd-coordinated alkene have been proposed: syn-inner- and anti-outer-sphere mechanisms. These reaction steps have been theoretically evaluated by means of ab initio molecular dynamics combined with metadynamics by placing the [Pd(C(2)H(4))Cl(2)(H(2)O)] complex in a box of water molecules, thereby resembling experimental conditions at low [Cl(-)]. The nucleophilic addition has also been evaluated for the [Pd(C(2)H(4))Cl(3)](-) complex, thus revealing that the water by chloride ligand substitution trans to ethene is kinetically favored over the generally assumed cis species in water. Hence, the resulting trans species can only directly undertake the outer-sphere nucleophilic addition, whereas the inner-sphere mechanism is hindered since the attacking water is located trans to ethene. In addition, all the simulations from the [Pd(C(2)H(4))Cl(2)(H(2)O)] species (either cis or trans) support an outer-sphere mechanism with a free-energy barrier compatible with that obtained experimentally, whereas that for the inner-sphere mechanism is significantly higher. Moreover, additional processes for a global understanding of the Wacker process in solution have also been identified, such as ligand substitutions, proton transfers that involve the aquo ligand, and the importance of the trans effect of the ethylene in the nucleophilic addition attack.

Association of frustrated phosphine–borane pairs in toluene: molecular dynamics simulations

Explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations of the ((t)Bu)(3)P/B(C(6)F(5))(3) pair in toluene allowed the estimation of the degree of intermolecular association and the population of encounter complex states in solution phase.