Posts Tagged ‘free energy’
Friday, May 27th, 2016
In the previous post, I explored the mechanism for nucleophilic substitution at a silicon centre proceeding via retention of configuration involving a Berry-like pseudorotation. Here I probe an alternative route involving inversion of configuration at the Si centre. Both stereochemical modes are known to occur, depending on the leaving group, solvent and other factors.[1],[2],[3]
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References
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L. Wozniak, M. Cypryk, J. Chojnowski, and G. Lanneau, "Optically active silyl esters of phosphorus. II. Stereochemistry of reactions with nucleophiles", Tetrahedron, vol. 45, pp. 4403-4414, 1989. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0040-4020(01)89077-3
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L.H. Sommer, and H. Fujimoto, "Stereochemistry of asymmetric silicon. X. Solvent and reagent effects on stereochemistry crossover in alkoxy-alkoxy exchange reactions at silicon centers", Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 90, pp. 982-987, 1968. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja01006a024
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D.N. Roark, and L.H. Sommer, "Dramatic stereochemistry crossover to retention of configuration with angle-strained asymmetric silicon", Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 95, pp. 969-971, 1973. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja00784a081
Tags:Brook rearrangement, energy, free energy, Leaving group, Nucleophilic substitution, Pseudorotation, Si centre, SNi, Substitution reactions, Walden inversion
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Wednesday, May 25th, 2016
The substitution of a nucleofuge (a good leaving group) by a nucleophile at a carbon centre occurs with inversion of configuration at the carbon, the mechanism being known by the term SN2 (a story I have also told in this post). Such displacement at silicon famously proceeds by a quite different mechanism, which I here quantify with some calculations.
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Tags:Berry mechanism, Elimination reaction, energy, energy barrier, energy profile, free energy, Leaving group, lower energy orientation, Molecular geometry, Organic reactions, overall free energy, Pseudorotation, search query, SN2 reaction, Stereochemistry, Trigonal bipyramidal molecular geometry
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Sunday, April 24th, 2016
The autoionization of water involves two molecules transfering a proton to give hydronium hydroxide, a process for which the free energy of reaction is well known. Here I ask what might happen with the next element along in the periodic table, F.
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Tags:dielectric, energy, Equilibrium chemistry, Fluorides, free energy, free energy barrier, Hydrogen bond, Hydronium, Inorganic solvents, Interesting chemistry, Lithium fluoride, low energy final geometry corresponds, Oxides, PH, Properties of water, Self-ionization of water, Water, Water model
Posted in Uncategorised | 10 Comments »
Friday, April 22nd, 2016
Earlier, I constructed a possible model of hydronium hydroxide, or H3O+.OH– One way of assessing the quality of the model is to calculate the free energy difference between it and two normal water molecules and compare the result to the measured difference. Here I apply a further test of the model using isotopes.
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Tags:dielectric, energy, free energy, Heat transfer, Heavy water, Interesting chemistry, Kilocalorie per mole, model is to calculate the free energy difference, Properties of water, the free energy, thermodynamics, Tritiated water
Posted in Uncategorised | 4 Comments »
Friday, April 15th, 2016
If H3N+-O– is viable compared with its tautomer H2N-OH when carrying water bridges, then why not try H2O+-O– vs HO-OH?
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Tags:Ammonia, Anions, free energy, General, Hydrogen bond, Hydrogen peroxide, Inorganic solvents, Interesting chemistry, Oxide, Oxidizing agents, Peroxide, Properties of water
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Friday, April 15th, 2016
In the previous post I described how hydronium hydroxide or H3O+…HO–, an intermolecular tautomer of water, has recently been observed captured inside an organic cage[1] and how the free-standing species in water can be captured computationally with the help of solvating water bridges. Here I explore azane oxide or H3N+-O–,‡ a tautomer of the better known hydroxylamine (H2N-OH).
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References
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M. Stapf, W. Seichter, and M. Mazik, "Unique Hydrogen‐Bonded Complex of Hydronium and Hydroxide Ions", Chemistry – A European Journal, vol. 21, pp. 6350-6354, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.201406383
Tags:Ammonia, aqueous solutions, Bases, energy relative, free energy, Functional groups, General, Hydrogen bond, Hydronium, Hydroxides, Hydroxyl, Hydroxylamine, Interesting chemistry, lowest energy form, Properties of water, Reducing agents, Self-ionization of water
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Thursday, April 14th, 2016
Ammonium hydroxide (NH4+…OH–) can be characterised quantum mechanically when stabilised by water bridges connecting the ion-pairs. It is a small step from there to hydronium hydroxide, or H3O+…OH–. The measured concentrations [H3O+] ≡ [OH–] give rise of course to the well-known pH 7 of pure water, and converting this ionization constant to a free energy indicates that the solvated ion-pair must be some ~19.1 kcal/mol higher in free energy than water itself.♣ So can a quantum calculation reproduce pH7 for water?
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Tags:Acid dissociation constant, Acids, Cations, chemical bonding, energy, Equilibrium chemistry, free energy, General, Hydride, Hydrogen bond, Hydronium, Hydroxide, Interesting chemistry, Physical chemistry, Properties of water, self-ionization energy, Self-ionization of water
Posted in Uncategorised | 3 Comments »
Sunday, January 10th, 2016
Earlier I explored models for the heteroaromatic electrophilic protiodecarboxylation of an 3-substituted indole, focusing on the role of water as the proton transfer and delivery agent. Next, came models for both water and the general base catalysed ionization of indolinones. Here I explore general acid catalysis by evaluating the properties of two possible models for decarboxylation of 3-indole carboxylic acid, one involving proton transfer (PT) from neutral water in the presence of covalent un-ionized HCl (1) and one with PT from a protonated water resulting from ionised HCl (2).
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Tags:Acid, Acids, bicyclic network, carboxylic acid, free energy, Functional groups, Hydrogen bond, Indole, Interesting chemistry, transition state free energy
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Friday, April 10th, 2015
Previously on this blog: modelling the reduction of cinnamaldehyde using one molecule of lithal shows easy reduction of the carbonyl but a high barrier at the next stage, the reduction of the double bond. Here is a quantum energetic exploration of what might happen when a second LAH is added to the brew (the usual ωB97XD/6-311+G(d,p)/SCRF=diethyl ether).
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Tags:computed free energy barrier, energy, energy surface, final product, flat energy potential, free energy, lower energy pathways, metal exchange, pence, potential energy surface, reduction, Yes
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Wednesday, April 1st, 2015
The reduction of cinnamaldehyde by lithium aluminium hydride (LAH) was reported in a classic series of experiments[1],[2],[3] dating from 1947-8. The reaction was first introduced into the organic chemistry laboratories here at Imperial College decades ago, vanished for a short period, and has recently been reintroduced again.‡ The experiment is really simple in concept; add LAH to cinnamaldehyde and you get just reduction of the carbonyl group; invert the order of addition and you additionally get reduction of the double bond. Here I investigate the mechanism of these reductions using computation (ωB97XD/6-311+G(d,p)/SCRF=diethyl ether).
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References
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R.F. Nystrom, and W.G. Brown, "Reduction of Organic Compounds by Lithium Aluminum Hydride. I. Aldehydes, Ketones, Esters, Acid Chlorides and Acid Anhydrides", Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 69, pp. 1197-1199, 1947. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja01197a060
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R.F. Nystrom, and W.G. Brown, "Reduction of Organic Compounds by Lithium Aluminum Hydride. II. Carboxylic Acids", Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 69, pp. 2548-2549, 1947. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja01202a082
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F.A. Hochstein, and W.G. Brown, "Addition of Lithium Aluminum Hydride to Double Bonds", Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 70, pp. 3484-3486, 1948. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja01190a082
Tags:Al-H-Li bridge, dihydrocinnamyl alcohol reduction product, free energy, Imperial College, independent researcher, low energy escape route, lower energy alternative, metal, pence
Posted in reaction mechanism | 5 Comments »