Transition state dissociation

A./ attack conclusive but product easily reconvertible e.g. reversible removal of acidic proton B./ attack inconclusive, i.e. perturbation of orbitals proceeds without reaching the transition state (dissociation of the "inconclusive complex", occurs before that point and molecules fall back from the hillside to the valley) C./ attack conclusive leading to new product. 

A situation that arises from the intramolecular dynamics of A and completely distinct from apparent non-RRKM behaviour is intrinsic non-RRKM behaviour [9], By this, it is meant that A has a non-random P(t) even if the internal vibrational states of A are prepared randomly. This situation arises when transitions between individual molecular vibrational/rotational states are slower than transitions leading to products. As a result, the vibrational states do not have equal dissociation probabilities. In tenns of classical phase space dynamics, slow transitions between the states occur when the reactant phase space is metrically decomposable [13,14] on the timescale of the imimolecular reaction and there is at least one bottleneck [9] in the molecular phase space other than the one defining the transition state. An intrinsic non-RRKM molecule decays non-exponentially with a time-dependent unimolecular rate constant or exponentially with a rate constant different from that of RRKM theory. 

Variational RRKM calculations, as described above, show that a imimolecular dissociation reaction may have two variational transition states [32, 31, 34, 31 and 36], i.e. one that is a tight vibrator type and another that is a loose rotator type. Wliether a particular reaction has both of these variational transition states, at a particular energy, depends on the properties of the reaction s potential energy surface [33, 34 and 31]- For many dissociation reactions there is only one variational transition state, which smoothly changes from a loose rotator type to a tight vibrator type as the energy is increased [26],... 

Figure A3.12.9. Comparison of the unimolecular dissociation rates for HO2—>H+02 as obtained from the quantum mechanical resonances open circles) and from variational transition state RRKM step...

Detailed analyses of the above experiments suggest that the apparent steps in k E) may not arise from quantized transition state energy levels [110.111]. Transition state models used to interpret the ketene and acetaldehyde dissociation experiments are not consistent with the results of high-level ab initio calculations [110.111]. The steps observed for NO2 dissociation may originate from the opening of electronically excited dissociation chaimels [107.108]. It is also of interest that RRKM-like steps in k E) are not found from detailed quantum dynamical calculations of unimolecular dissociation [91.101.102.112]. More studies are needed of unimolecular reactions near tln-eshold to detennine whether tiiere are actual quantized transition states and steps in k E) and, if not, what is the origin of the apparent steps in the above measurements of k E). 

Leu G-H, Huang C-L, Lee S-H, Lee Y-C and Chen l-C 1998 Vibrational levels of the transition state and rate of dissociation of triplet acetaldehyde J. Chem. Phys. 109 9340-50... 

One of the motivations for studying Van der Waals complexes and clusters is that they are floppy systems with similarities to the transition states of chemical reactions. This can be taken one stage further by studying clusters that actually are precursors for chemical reactions, and can be broken up to make more than one set of products. A good example of this is H2-OH, which can in principle dissociate to fonn either H2 + OH or H2O + H. Indeed, dissociation to H2 O -t H is energetically favoured the reaction H2 + OH—> H2 O -t H is exothennic by about 5000... 

Fast transient studies are largely focused on elementary kinetic processes in atoms and molecules, i.e., on unimolecular and bimolecular reactions with first and second order kinetics, respectively (although confonnational heterogeneity in macromolecules may lead to the observation of more complicated unimolecular kinetics). Examples of fast thennally activated unimolecular processes include dissociation reactions in molecules as simple as diatomics, and isomerization and tautomerization reactions in polyatomic molecules. A very rough estimate of the minimum time scale required for an elementary unimolecular reaction may be obtained from the Arrhenius expression for the reaction rate constant, k = A. The quantity /cg T//i from transition state theory provides... 

The major difference between the two mechanisms is the second step The second step m the reaction of tert butyl alcohol with hydrogen chloride is the ummolecular dis sociation of tert butyloxonium ion to tert butyl cation and water Heptyloxonium ion however instead of dissociating to an unstable primary carbocation reacts differently It IS attacked by bromide ion which acts as a nucleophile We can represent the transition state for this step as... 

We shall consider just two examples of the use of femtosecond lasers in spectroscopy. One is an investigation of the transition state in the dissociation of Nal and the other concerns the direct, time-based observation of vibrational energy levels in an excited electronic state of I2. 

Electrode kinetics lend themselves to treatment usiag the absolute reaction rate theory or the transition state theory (36,37). In these treatments, the path followed by the reaction proceeds by a route involving an activated complex where the element determining the reaction rate, ie, the rate limiting step, is the dissociation of the activated complex. The general electrode reaction may be described as ... 

Because a relates the sensitivity to structural changes that the proton-transfer process exhibits to that exhibited by dissociation of the acid, it is frequently assumed that the value of a can be used as an indicator of transition-state structure. The closer a approaches unity, the greater is the degree of proton transfer in the transition state. There are limits to the generality of this interpretaton, however. ... 

The transition state is closer in energy to the car bocation and more closely resembles it than the alkyloxonium ion. Thus, structural features that stabilize car bocations stabilize transition states leading to them. It follows, therefore, that alkyloxonium ions derived from tertiary alcohols have a lower energy of activation for dissociation and are converted to their- corresponding carbocations faster than those derived from secondary and primar y alcohols. Simply put more stable carbocations are formed faster than less stable ones. Figure 4.17 expresses this principle via a potential energy diagran. 

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