Energetics and mechanism of the decomposition of trifluoromethanol.
J Phys Chem A
; 112(6): 1298-312, 2008 Feb 14.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-18205340
ABSTRACT
The thermal instability of alpha-fluoroalcohols is generally attributed to a unimolecular 1,2-elimination of HF, but the barrier to intramolecular HF elimination from CF3OH is predicted to be 45.1 +/- 2 kcal/mol. The thermochemical parameters of trifluoromethanol were calculated using coupled-cluster theory (CCSD(T)) extrapolated to the complete basis set limit. High barriers of 42.9, 43.1, and 45.0 kcal/mol were predicted for the unimolecular decompositions of CH2FOH, CHF2OH, and CF3OH, respectively. These barriers are lowered substantially if cyclic H-bonded dimers of CF3OH with complexation energies of approximately 5 kcal/mol are involved. A six-membered ring dimer has an energy barrier of 28.7 kcal/mol and an eight-membered dimer has an energy barrier of 32.9 kcal/mol. Complexes of CF3OH with HF lead to strong H-bonded dimers, trimers and tetramers with complexation energies of approximately 6, 11, and 16 kcal/mol, respectively. The dimer, CH3OHHF, and the trimers, CF3OH2HF and (CH3OH)2HF, have decomposition energy barriers of 26.7, 20.3, and 22.8 kcal/mol, respectively. The tetramer (CH3OHHF)2 gives rise to elimination of two HF molecules with a barrier of 32.5 kcal/mol. Either CF3OH or HF can act as catalysts for HF-elimination via an H-transfer relay. Because HF is one of the decomposition products, the decomposition reactions become autocatalytic. If the energies due to complexation for the CF3OH-HF adducts are not dissipated, the effective barriers to HF elimination are lowered from approximately 20 to approximately 9 kcal/mol, which reconciles the computational results with the experimentally observed stabilities.
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Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Phys Chem A
Assunto da revista:
QUIMICA
Ano de publicação:
2008
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos