Barrier height experimental

Investigation of local tunneling barrier heights Experimental... 

We start with the reaction of abstraction of a hydrogen atom by a CH3 radical from molecules of different matrices (see, e.g., Le Roy et al. [1980], Pacey [1979]). These systems were the first to display the need to go beyond the one-dimensional consideration. The experimental data are presented in table 2 together with the barrier heights and widths calculated so as to fit the theoretical dependence (2.1) with a symmetric gaussian barrier. 

However, for these parameters of the barrier, the cross-over temperature would exceed 500 K, while the observed values are 50 K. If one were to start from the d values calculated from the experimental data, the barrier height would go up to 30-40 kcal/mol, making any reaction impossible. This disparity between Vq and d is illustrated in fig. 34 which shows the PES cuts for the transition via the saddle-point and for the values of d indicated in table 2. 

Figure 13-8. Typical results for interna, plroiocniission measurements on an ITO/ OPPV/Ca diode at various applied voltages. Tire lines are least-square tils and their extrapolation yields the barrier height for that applied voltage. Inset shows the experimental setup. Reproduced with permission from IIIV1-...

From a practical point of view, it would be very desirable to have reliable rules, even if only empirical, which could provide estimates of barrier heights in the absence of experimental data. This would be of obvious use in predicting thermodynamic quantities for stable molecules and would also be most valuable in testing and applying theories of reaction rates. Furthermore, any empirical regularities observed could be helpful in the development of a theoretical treatment of barriers. 

Here, once more the barrier height values are seen to be very basis dependent. The value encountered for the singlet excited state, however, is found to be in relatively good agreement with the experimental value 550 cm [20]. 

The ESR spectrum of methanesulfinyl radical (CH3SO), identified in a y-irradiated single crystal of dimethyl sulfoxide , indicates that the unpaired electron resides essentially (72%) on the sulfur 3p orbital with modest population on the sulfur 3s (0.65%) A detailed analysis of the temperature dependence leads to 2.6 kcal mol barrier height for the hindered internal rotation of the methyl group. At low temperature (88 K) the radical adopts a fixed conformation in which one proton lies in the nodal plane of the sulfur 3p orbital however, it was not possible to distinguish either experimentally or by ab initio SCF-MO calculations between the two possible conformations, that is, 2 and 3. 

One of the simplest chemical reactions involving a barrier, H2 + H —> [H—H—H] —> II + H2, has been investigated in some detail in a number of publications. The theoretical description of this hydrogen abstraction sequence turns out to be quite involved for post-Hartree-Fock methods and is anything but a trivial task for density functional theory approaches. Table 13-7 shows results reported by Johnson et al., 1994, and Csonka and Johnson, 1998, for computed classical barrier heights (without consideration of zero-point vibrational corrections or tunneling effects) obtained with various methods. The CCSD(T) result of 9.9 kcal/mol is probably very accurate and serves as a reference (the experimental barrier, which of course includes zero-point energy contributions, amounts to 9.7 kcal/mol). 

With the introduction of two parameters in Eq. (4-15), the EH-MOVB method can be calibrated to reproduce exactly the experimental barrier height and the desired reaction energy. 

The most accurate energies and geometries for the Cl" + CH,Clb system are those calculated at the CEPA-l/avtz and G2(+) levels of theory. Without zero-point energies included, the CEPA- 1/avtz calculations give a complex well depth of-10.6 kcal/mol and a central barrier height of 2.8 kcal/mol. The G2(+) values for these energies are -10.7 and 3.0 kcal/mol. The most recent experimental value for the 0 K complex well depth is 12.2 2 kcal/mol.23... 

In this chapter, we first present a brief overview of the experimental techniques that we and others have used to study torsional motion in S, and D0 (Section II). These are resonant two-photon ionization (R2PI) for S,-S0 spectroscopy and pulsed-field ionization (commonly known as ZEKE-PFI) for D0-S, spectroscopy. In Section HI, we summarize what is known about sixfold methyl rotor barriers in S0, S, and D0, including a brief description of how the absolute conformational preference can be inferred from spectral intensities. Section IV describes the threefold example of o-cholorotoluene in some detail and summarizes what is known about threefold barriers more generally. The sequence of molecules o-fluorotoluene, o-chlorotoluene, and 2-fluoro-6-chlorotoluene shows the effects of ort/io-fluoro and ortho-chloro substituents on the rotor potential. These are approximately additive in S0, S, and D0. Finally, in Section V, we present our ideas about the underlying causes of these diverse barrier heights and conformational preferences, based on analysis of the optimized geometries and electronic wavefunctions from ab initio calculations. 

For most molecules studied, modest Hartree-Fock calculations yield remarkably accurate barriers that allow confident prediction of the lowest energy conformer in the S0 and D0 states. The simplest level of theory that predicts barriers in good agreement with experiment is HF/6-31G for the closed-shell S0 state (Hartree-Fock theory) and UHF/6-31G for the open-shell D0 state (unrestricted Hartree-Fock theory). The 6-31G basis set has double-zeta quality, with split valence plus d-type polarization on heavy atoms. This is quite modest by current standards. Nevertheless, such calculations reproduce experimental barrier heights within 10%. 

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