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In this work, the pressure- and temperature-dependent reaction rate constants for the hydrogen abstraction and addition of hydroxyl radicals to the unsaturated cyclopentene were studied. Geometries and vibrational frequencies of reactants, products, and transition states were calculated using density functional theory, with single-point energy corrections determined at the domain-based local pair natural orbital-coupled-cluster single double triple/cc-pVTZ-F12 level. The high-pressure limit rate constants were calculated using the canonical variational transition state theory with the small-curvature tunneling approximation. The vibrational partition functions were corrected by the effects of torsional and ring-puckering anharmonicities of the transition states and cyclopentene, respectively. Variational effects are shown to be relevant for all the hydrogen abstraction reactions. The increasing of the rate constants by tunneling is significant at temperatures below 500 K. The pressure dependence on the rate constants of the addition of [Formula: see text] to cyclopentene was calculated using the system-specific quantum Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel model. The high-pressure limit rate constants decrease with increasing temperature in the range 250–1000 K. The falloff behavior was studied at several temperatures with pressures varying between 10−3 and 103 bar. At temperatures below 500 K, the effect of the pressure on the addition rate constant is very modest. However, at temperatures around and above 1000 K, taking pressure into account is mandatory for an accurate rate constant calculation. Branching ratio analyses reveal that the addition reaction dominates at temperatures below 500 K, decreasing rapidly at higher temperatures. Arrhenius parameters are provided for all reactions and pressure dependent Arrhenius parameters are given for the addition of [Formula: see text] to cyclopentene.

The detailed understanding of the combustion process differences between saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons is of paramount importance for the rational design of more efficient fuel blends. In this work, extensive ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations have been employed to characterize and differentiate the initial combustion profiles of cyclopentane and cyclopentene. The main goal is the comprehensive identification of the main intermediates and reaction channels. The results show that, while homolytic carbon-carbon bond cleavage constitute the main initiation pathway, the rate of such type of elementary reaction depends highly on the internal energy content of the system. Thus, towards lower temperatures, hydrogen abstraction by dioxygen and other radicals become more prominent. The presence of a single unsaturation leads to a greater number of distinct points of attack on cyclopentene, but such feature does not implicate in a faster decay of the olefin during combustion. A pool of radicals, especially HO · and HO 2 · , was found to be present over the entirety of both processes, contributing to chain propagation and branching. Therefore, a cogent picture of the similarities and differences between the combustion process of an unsaturated and a saturated hydrocarbon is presented and discussed.

In this work we show how the VSCF method may be successfully used to describe all fundamental vibrational transitions of several isotopologs of water dimer. By expressing the normal mode displacements in terms of appropriate delocalized internal coordinates we are able to minimize the mode-mode coupling in the PES and thus yield PT2-VSCF frequencies in good agreement with the experiment. The use of curvilinear normal modes is of paramount importance to describe vibrational transitions of the very soft intermolecular modes. Within our approach the maximum calculated error for the (H 2 O) 2 intermolecular frequencies are reduced from 311 cm −1 (Cartesian normal modes) to just 56 cm −1 (curvilinear normal modes). Plots of the diagonal intermolecular potential and of the vibrational wave function illustrate the remarkable effect of different coordinate systems. In conclusion, our PT2-VSCF calculations provide a fair anharmonic description of the fundamental transitions of water dimers.

The intrinsically elusive concepts of electronic “delocalization” and “chemical resonance” are briefly reviewed emphasizing their connection with Spin-Coupled (SC) descriptions of electronic structure. Multiconfiguration Spin-Coupled (MC-SC) calculations are performed to describe the three-center two-electron (3c-2e) bonding in some representative carbenium and nonclassical carbonium ions. Within the MC-SC approach, it is found that these cations present significant electronic energy stabilization when described by more than one valence SC spatial orbital configuration. It is shown that it is necessary to have a superposition of two chemical structures to completely span the orbital valence space of these cations. Two characteristic bonding themes are clearly distinguished. One specific to allyl-type carbenium ions and another specific to the nonclassical carbonium ions. In both situations, the 3c-2e bond is described by two chemical structures. The 3c-2e bond present in these carbocations is described clearly within this conceptual framework. The results point out for the robustness of the Spin-Coupled description in yielding a general picture of bonding, even when considering valence-bond type multiconfiguration effects.

N-Heptane and 2,2,4-trimethylpentane (isooctane) are the key species in the modeling of ignition of hydrocarbon-based fuel formulations. Isooctane is knock-resistant whereas n-heptane is a very knock-prone hydrocarbon. It has been suggested that interconversion of their associated alkylperoxy and hydroperoxyalkyl species via hydrogen-transfer isomerization reaction is the key step to understand their different knocking behavior. In this work, the kinetics of unimolecular hydrogen-transfer reactions of n-heptylperoxy and isooctylperoxy are determined using canonical variational transition-state theory and multidimensional small curvature tunneling. Internal rotation of involved molecules is taken explicitly into account in the molecular partition function. The rate coefficients are calculated in the temperature range 300-900 K, relevant to low-temperature autoignition. The concerted HO2 elimination is an important reaction that competes with some H-transfer and is associated with chain termination. Thus, the branching ratio between these reaction channels is analyzed. We show that variational and multidimensional tunneling effects cannot be neglected for the H-transfer reaction. In particular, the pre-exponential Arrhenius fitting parameter derived from our rate constants shows a strong dependence on the temperature, because tunneling increases quickly at temperatures below 500 K. On the basis of our results, the existing qualitative model for the reasons for different knock behavior observed for n-heptane and isooctane is quantitatively validated at the molecular level.