Hydrogen transfer states

Fig. 1. Examples of temperature dependence of the rate constant for the reactions in which the low-temperature rate-constant limit has been observed 1. hydrogen transfer in the excited singlet state of the molecule represented by (6.16) 2. molecular reorientation in methane crystal 3. internal rotation of CHj group in radical (6.25) 4. inversion of radical (6.40) 5. hydrogen transfer in halved molecule (6.16) 6. isomerization of molecule (6.17) in excited triplet state 7. tautomerization in the ground state of 7-azoindole dimer (6.1) 8. polymerization of formaldehyde in reaction (6.44) 9. limiting stage (6.45) of (a) chain hydrobromination, (b) chlorination and (c) bromination of ethylene 10. isomerization of radical (6.18) 11. abstraction of H atom by methyl radical from methanol matrix [reaction (6.19)] 12. radical pair isomerization in dimethylglyoxime crystals [Toriyama et al. 1977].

Hydrogen transfer in excited electronic states is being intensively studied with time-resolved spectroscopy. A typical scheme of electronic terms is shown in fig. 46. A vertical optical transition, induced by a picosecond laser pulse, populates the initial well of the excited Si state. The reverse optical transition, observed as the fluorescence band Fj, is accompanied by proton transfer to the second well with lower energy. This transfer is registered as the appearance of another fluorescence band, F2, with a large anti-Stokes shift. The rate constant is inferred from the time dependence of the relative intensities of these bands in dual fluorescence. The experimental data obtained by this method have been reviewed by Barbara et al. [1989]. We only quote the example of hydrogen transfer in the excited state of... 

The transfer of PCSs from solutions into the solid state may be accompanied by the origination of hydrogen and salt bonds, by associations in crystalline regions, or by charge transfer states and some other phenomena. These effects are followed by some conformational transformations in the macromolecules. The solution of the problem of the influence of these phenomena on the conjugation efficiency and on the complex of properties of the polymer is of fundamental importance. 

The rare [1,4] hydrogen transfer has been observed in radical cyclizations. With respect to [1,7] hydrogen shifts, the rules predict the thermal reaction to be antarafacial. Unlike the case of [1,3] shifts, the transition state is not too greatly strained, and such rearrangements have been reported, for example,... 

Figure 1.11 Transition state for hydrogen transfer and its analog intermediate (schematic).

The important criterion thus becomes the ability of the enzyme to distort and thereby reduce barrier width, and not stabilisation of the transition state with concomitant reduction in barrier height (activation energy). We now describe theoretical approaches to enzymatic catalysis that have led to the development of dynamic barrier (width) tunneUing theories for hydrogen transfer. Indeed, enzymatic hydrogen tunnelling can be treated conceptually in a similar way to the well-established quantum theories for electron transfer in proteins. 

Transition state theory has been useful in providing a rationale for the so-called kinetic isotope effect. The kinetic isotope effect is used by enzy-mologists to probe various aspects of mechanism. Importantly, measured kinetic isotope effects have also been used to monitor if non-classical behaviour is a feature of enzyme-catalysed hydrogen transfer reactions. The kinetic isotope effect arises because of the differential reactivity of, for example, a C-H (protium), a C-D (deuterium) and a C-T (tritium) bond. 

The only (to the best of our knowledge) theoretical treatment of hydrogen transfer by tunnelling to explicitly recognise the role of protein dynamics, and relate this in turn to the observed kinetic isotope effect, was described by Bruno and Bialek. This approach has been termed vibration-ally enhanced ground state tunnelling theory. A key feature of this theory... 

The modifier in these cases seems to generate enantioselective sites at the metal surface and helps the molecule to adsorb in a preferred fashion so that the formation of only one stereo- product is possible. There are several milestones that have contributed to this state-of-the-art technology. Discovery of Wilkinson s catalyst led to the feasibility of asymmetric hydrogen transfer with the aid of an optically active Wilkinson-type catalyst for L-DOPA (Monsanto s anti-Parkinson disease drug) synthesis (Eqn. (21)). 

Finally, we note the informative work of Garcia-Garibay and co-workers, who have extensively studied QMT in hydrogen transfer reactions in the excited triplet states of ort/zo-alkylarylketones, for example, 6 —> 7, which are electronically similar to radical rearrangements. 

The rate of hydrogen transfer can be calculated using the direct dynamics approach of Truhlar and co-workers which combines canonical variational transition state theory (CVT) [82, 83] with semi-classical multidimensional tunnelling corrections [84], The rate constant is calculated using [83] ... 

Bases stacked rather than hydrogen bonded have also been studied with quantum chemical methods [182, 244-247]. The nature of excited states in these systems has been debated and theoretical calculations are called to decide on the degree of excited state localization or delocalization, as well as the presence and energy of charge transfer states. The experimentally observed hypochromism of DNA compared to its individual bases has been known for decades [248], Accurate quantum chemical calculations are limited in these systems because of their increased size. Many of the reported studies have used TDDFT to calculate excited states of bases stacked with other bases [182, 244, 246, 247], However, one has to be cautious when us-... 

Sobolewski AL, Domcke W, Dedonder-Lardeux C, Jouvet C (2002) Excited-state hydrogen detachment and hydrogen transfer driven by repulsive (l)pi sigma states a new paradigm for nonradiative decay in aromatic biomolecules. J Phys Chem Chem Phys 4 1093—1100... 

Schultz T, Samoylova E, Radloff W, Hertel IV, Sobolewski AL, Domcke W (2004) Efficient deactivation of a model base pair via excited-state hydrogen transfer. Science 306 1765... 

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