Marie-Françoise Reyniers

Normal Mode Analysis in Zeolites: Toward an Efficient Calculation of Adsorption Entropies

An efficient procedure for normal-mode analysis of extended systems, such as zeolites, is developed and illustrated for the physisorption and chemisorption of n-octane and isobutene in H-ZSM-22 and H-FAU using periodic DFT calculations employing the Vienna Ab Initio Simulation Package. Physisorption and chemisorption entropies resulting from partial Hessian vibrational analysis (PHVA) differ at most 10 J mol(-1) K(-1) from those resulting from full Hessian vibrational analysis, even for PHVA schemes in which only a very limited number of atoms are considered free. To acquire a well-conditioned Hessian, much tighter optimization criteria than commonly used for electronic energy calculations in zeolites are required, i.e., at least an energy cutoff of 400 eV, maximum force of 0.02 eV/Å, and self-consistent field loop convergence criteria of 10(-8) eV. For loosely bonded complexes the mobile adsorbate method is applied, in which frequency contributions originating from translational or rotational motions of the adsorbate are removed from the total partition function and replaced by free translational and/or rotational contributions. The frequencies corresponding with these translational and rotational modes can be selected unambiguously based on a mobile block Hessian-PHVA calculation, allowing the prediction of physisorption entropies within an accuracy of 10-15 J mol(-1) K(-1) as compared to experimental values. The approach presented in this study is useful for studies on other extended catalytic systems.

First Principles Based Group Additive Values for the Gas Phase Standard Entropy and Heat Capacity of Hydrocarbons and Hydrocarbon Radicals

In this work a complete and consistent set of 95 Benson group additive values (GAVs) for standard entropies S(o) and heat capacities C(p)(o) of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon radicals is presented. These GAVs include 46 groups, among which 25 radical groups, which, to the best of our knowledge, have not been reported before. The GAVs have been determined from a set of B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) ideal gas statistical thermodynamics values for 265 species, consistently with previously reported GAVs for standard enthalpies of formation. One-dimensional hindered rotor corrections for all internal rotations are included. The computational methodology has been compared to experimental entropies (298 K) for 39 species, with a mean absolute deviation (MAD) between experiment and calculation of 1.2 J mol(-1) K(-1), and to 46 experimental heat capacities (298 K) with a resulting MAD = 1.8 J mol(-1) K(-1). The constructed database allowed evaluation of corrections on S(o) and C(p)(o) for non-nearest-neighbor effects, which have not been determined previously. The group additive model predicts the S(o) and C(p)(o) within approximately 5 J mol(-1) K(-1) of the ab initio values for 11 of the 14 molecules of the test set, corresponding to an acceptable maximal deviation of a factor of 1.6 on the equilibrium coefficient. The obtained GAVs can be applied for the prediction of S(o) and C(p)(o) for a wide range of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon radicals. The constructed database also allowed determination of a large set of hydrogen bond increments, which can be useful for the prediction of radical thermochemistry.

Theoretical Study of the Thermal Decomposition of Dimethyl Disulfide

Despite its use in a wide variety of industrially important thermochemical processes, little is known about the thermal decomposition mechanism of dimethyl disulfide (DMDS). To obtain more insight, the radical decomposition mechanism of DMDS is studied theoretically and a kinetic model is developed accounting for the formation of all the decomposition products observed in the experimental studies available in literature. Thermochemical data and rate coefficients are obtained using the high-level CBS-QB3 composite method. Among five methods tested (BMK/6-311G(2d,d,p), MPW1PW91/6-311G(2d,d,p), G3, G3B3, and CBS-QB3), the CBS-QB3 method was found to reproduce most accurately the experimental standard enthalpies of formation for a set of 17 small organosulfur compounds and the bond dissociation energies for a set of 10 sulfur bonds. Enthalpies of formation were predicted within 4 kJ mol(-1) while the mean absolute deviation on the bond dissociation enthalpies amounts to 7 kJ mol(-1). From the theoretical study, a new reaction path is identified for the formation of carbon disulfide via dithiirane (CH(2)S(2)). A reaction mechanism was constructed containing 36 reactions among 25 species accounting for the formation of all the decomposition products reported in literature. High-pressure limit rate coefficients for the 36 reactions in the reaction mechanism are presented. The kinetic model is able to grasp the experimental observations. With the recombination of thiyl radicals treated as being in the low-pressure limit, the experimentally reported first-order rate coefficients for the decomposition of DMDS are reproduced within 1 order of magnitude, while the observed product selectivities of most compounds are reproduced satisfactory. Simulations indicate that at high conversions most of the carbon disulfide forms according to the newly identified reaction path involving the formation of dithiirane.

Bond Dissociation Energies of Organophosphorus Compounds: an Assessment of Contemporary Ab Initio Procedures

Thermodynamic properties of phosphorus-containing compounds were investigated using high-level ab initio computations. An extended set of contemporary density functional theory (DFT) procedures was assessed for their ability to accurately predict bond dissociation energies of a set of phosphoranyl radicals. The results of meta- and double-hybrids as well as more recent methods, in particular M05, M05-2X, M06, and M06-2X, were compared with benchmark G3(MP2)-RAD values. Standard heats of formation, entropies, and heat capacities of a set of ten organophosphorus compounds were determined and the low-cost BMK functional was found to provide results consistent with available experimental data. In addition, bond dissociation enthalpies (BDEs) were computed using the BMK, M05-2X, and SCS-ROMP2 procedure. The three methods give the same stability trend. The BDEs of the phosphorus(III) molecules were found to be lower than their phosphorus(V) counterparts. Overall, the following ordering is found: BDE(P-OPh) < BDE(P-CH(3)) < BDE(P-Ph) < BDE(P-OCH(3)).