RESUMO
We have tested a new and general approach for the theoretical study of unimolecular decomposition. By combining the power of the ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) and ab initio molecular orbital (MO) methods, our approach requires no prior experimental knowledge or intuitive assumptions about the decomposition. Instead, the reaction channels are first sampled theoretically by simulating a molecule at high temperature in a number of trajectories, using the density functional theory (DFT) based ab initio MD method with a planewave basis set and pseudopotentials. Each type of these channels is then further examined by well-established ab initio MO method to locate the energy barrier and transition structure and to verify the ab initio MD results. The power of such an approach is demonstrated in a case study for the complicated unimolecular thermal decomposition of NTO (5-nitro-2,4-dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazol-3-one), with several interesting new features uncovered. The C-NO2 homolysis is indeed the dominant channel at high temperature, while the departing NO2 could capture a H atom from the NTO ring to form HONO, by either a concerted bond breaking mechanism or by a bimolecular reaction between the NO2 group and the triazol ring. At lower temperature, the dissociation channels initiated by hydrogen migrations should be activated first. The channel with hydrogen migration followed by ring opening and then by HONO loss has an energy barrier of 38.0 kcal/mol at the rate-determining step, being the lowest among all the investigated dissociation paths and much lower than previously thought. The energy barrier for nitro-nitrite rearrangement is lower than that for the C-NO2 homolysis but makes only a minor contribution due to the entropy factor. And the NTO ring could rupture in the two C-N bonds connected to the carbonyl carbon, and the energy barriers for such processes are only 2-4 kcal/mol higher than that for the C-NO2 homolysis.
