Theoretical Study of an Undisclosed Reaction Class: Direct H-Atom Abstraction from Allylic Radicals by Molecular Oxygen

The 1-methylallyl (C4H71-3) allylic radical is an important intermediate species in oxidation of linear C4 unsaturated hydrocarbons (1-butene, 2-butene, and 1,3-butadiene). This study reports the first high-level quantum chemical calculations for an undisclosed reaction class of this radical at intermediate to high temperatures: direct H-atom abstraction from terminal methyl group by molecular oxygen. Moreover, we systematically calculated rate constants for primary, secondary, and tertiary H-atom abstraction from the C4, C5, and C6 allylic radicals, respectively. Our results can be further used as rate rules for kinetic model development of unsaturated hydrocarbon oxidation. All calculations were implemented using two different ab initio solvers: Gaussian and ORCA, three sets of ab initio methods, and two different kinetic solvers: MultiWell and PAPR. Temperature dependent rate constants and thermochemistry were carried out based on transition state theory and statistical thermodynamics, respectively. H-atom abstraction from the primary site of C4 allylic radical is found to be faster than that from secondary and tertiary sites of C5 and C6 allylic radicals, contrary to common understanding. Barrier heights predicted by different ab initio solvers and methods are about 4–5 kcal/mol different, which results in a factor of 4–86 difference in rate constant predictions depending on the temperature. Using the Gaussian solver with Method 2 is found to be the most effective combination of predicting accurate rate constants when compared against experimental data. When comparing two kinetic solvers, both reaction rate coefficients and species thermochemistry show good agreement at a wide range of temperatures, except for the rate coefficients calculated for C5 and C6 reactions (about a factor of 5–17 and 3–4 differences were obtained, respectively). From an application point of view, we incorporated the calculation results into the AramcoMech2.0 model, and found systematic improvements for predicting ignition delay time, laminar flame speed and speciation targets of 2-butene oxidation.

Balancing the Activity and Selectivity of Propane Oxidative Dehydrogenation on NiOOH (001) and (010)

Propane oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) is an energy-efficient approach to produce propylene. However, ODH suffers from low propylene selectivity due to a relatively higher activation barrier for propylene formation compared with that for further oxidation. In this work, calculations based on density functional theory were performed to map out the reaction pathways of propane ODH on the surfaces (001) and (010) of nickel oxide hydroxide (NiOOH). Results show that propane is physisorbed on both surfaces and produces propylene through a two-step radical dehydrogenation process. The relatively low activation barriers of propane dehydrogenation on the NiOOH surfaces make the NiOOH-based catalysts promising for propane ODH. By contrast, the weak interaction between the allylic radical and the surface leads to a high activation barrier for further propylene oxidation. These results suggest that the catalysts based on NiOOH can be active and selective for the ODH of propane toward propylene.

Light-induced Free Radical Oxidation of 2-Oxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidines

A variety of 4-substituted 5-acetyl- and 5-carboethoxy-2-oxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidines were oxidized under UV irradiation in the presence or absence of benzoyl peroxide. The nature of the substituents on the 4- and 5-positions of the heterocyclic ring affects the rate of photo-oxidation, and irradiation of these compounds in the presence of benzoyl peroxide decreases the time of reaction drastically. Removal of 4-H by a benzoyloxy radical under formation of a trihydropyrimidinoyl radical intermediate occurs in the rate-determining step. The stability of this benzylic and allylic radical intermediate is affected by the nature and the position of the additional substituent on the phenyl group located at C-4.