Automatic mechanism generation for pyrolysis of di-tert-butyl sulfide.

The automated Reaction Mechanism Generator (RMG), using rate parameters derived from ab initio CCSD(T) calculations, is used to build reaction networks for the thermal decomposition of di-tert-butyl sulfide. Simulation results were compared with data from pyrolysis experiments with and without the addition of a cyclohexene inhibitor. Purely free-radical chemistry did not properly explain the reactivity of di-tert-butyl sulfide, as the previous experimental work showed that the sulfide decomposed via first-order kinetics in the presence and absence of the radical inhibitor. The concerted unimolecular decomposition of di-tert-butyl sulfide to form isobutene and tert-butyl thiol was found to be a key reaction in both cases, as it explained the first-order sulfide decomposition. The computer-generated kinetic model predictions quantitatively match most of the experimental data, but the model is apparently missing pathways for radical-induced decomposition of thiols to form elemental sulfur. Cyclohexene has a significant effect on the composition of the radical pool, and this led to dramatic changes in the resulting product distribution.

Kinetics of homolytic substitutions by hydrogen atoms at thiols and sulfides.

Thermodynamic and kinetic data in the temperature range 300-1500 K are calculated for 94 homolytic substitution reactions by a hydrogen atom at thiols and sulfides with the CBS-QB3//BMK/6-311G(2d,d,p) method. The studied reactions were found to proceed according to a one-step mechanism. A group additivity (GA) method is presented to model the Arrhenius parameters of this reaction family. The required GA values were derived from data obtained for a set containing 58 reactions. By using the developed GA scheme, rate coefficients at 300 K for 26 substitution reactions by the hydrogen atom are reproduced within a factor of 2.2. Mean absolute deviations on the activation energy and pre-exponential factor are limited to 1.1 kJ mol(-1) and 0.19, respectively. Rate coefficients for the reverse reactions, that is, substitution reactions by C- and S-centered radicals with expulsion of a hydrogen atom, are reproduced within a factor of 6 by using thermodynamic consistency. At 1000 K, group additive and calculated rate coefficients for the forward and reverse reactions agree within a factor of 1.8 and 4, respectively. Experimental rate coefficients in the temperature range 300-400 K are reproduced within a factor of 5. Discrepancies between calculated and experimental data are discussed.

Kinetic modeling of hydrogen abstractions involving sulfur radicals.

One of the requisites for the development of detailed reaction networks is the availability of accurate kinetic data. Group additivity based models linking the Arrhenius parameters to structural characteristics of the transition state have proven to be a valuable tool to obtain those data. In this work, group additivity values are presented to allow a broad range of CH and SH hydrogen abstraction reactions by S radicals to be modeled. Rate coefficients in the temperature range from 300 to 1500 K are obtained by using the CBS-QB3 method in the high-pressure limit and are corrected for tunneling and anharmonicity of rotation about the transitional bond. A total of 149 reactions are studied. From these reactions, a total of 52 group additivity values and 35 resonance corrections are derived. The general applicability of the group additivity method is demonstrated for a test set containing 25 reactions. At 300 K, rate coefficients are on average reproduced within a factor of 2.8. The mean absolute deviations on the Arrhenius parameters are 2 kJ mol(-1) for the activation energy and 0.38 for log A in which A is the pre-exponential factor.

Kinetics of α hydrogen abstractions from thiols, sulfides and thiocarbonyl compounds.

Hydrogen abstraction reactions involving organosulfur compounds play an important role in many industrial, biological and atmospheric processes. Despite their chemical relevance, little is known about their kinetics. In this work a group additivity model is developed that allows predicting the Arrhenius parameters for abstraction reactions of α hydrogen atoms from thiols, alkyl sulfides, alkyl disulfides and thiocarbonyl compounds by carbon-centered radicals at temperatures ranging from 300 to 1500 K. Rate coefficients for 102 hydrogen abstractions were obtained using conventional transition state theory within the high-pressure limit. Electronic barriers were calculated using the CBS-QB3 method and the rate coefficients were corrected for tunneling and hindered rotation about the transitional bond. Group additivity values for 46 groups are determined. To account for resonance and hyperconjugative stabilization in the transition state, 8 resonance corrections were fitted to a set of 32 reactions. The developed group additivity scheme was validated using a test set containing an additional 30 reactions. The group additivity scheme succeeds in reproducing the rate coefficients on average within a factor of 2.4 at 300 K and 1.4 at 1000 K. Mean absolute deviations of the Arrhenius parameters amount to, respectively, 2.5 kJ mol(-1) for E(a) and 0.13 for log A, both at 300 and 1000 K. This work hence illustrates that the recently developed group additivity methods for Arrhenius parameters extrapolate successfully to hetero-element containing compounds.

Modeling the gas-phase thermochemistry of organosulfur compounds.

Key to understanding the involvement of organosulfur compounds in a variety of radical chemistries, such as atmospheric chemistry, polymerization, pyrolysis, and so forth, is knowledge of their thermochemical properties. For organosulfur compounds and radicals, thermochemical data are, however, much less well documented than for hydrocarbons. The traditional recourse to the Benson group additivity method offers no solace since only a very limited number of group additivity values (GAVs) is available. In this work, CBS-QB3 calculations augmented with 1D hindered rotor corrections for 122 organosulfur compounds and 45 organosulfur radicals were used to derive 93 Benson group additivity values, 18 ring-strain corrections, 2 non-nearest-neighbor interactions, and 3 resonance corrections for standard enthalpies of formation, standard molar entropies, and heat capacities for organosulfur compounds and organosulfur radicals. The reported GAVs are consistent with previously reported GAVs for hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon radicals and include 77 contributions, among which 26 radical contributions, which, to the best of our knowledge, have not been reported before. The GAVs allow one to estimate the standard enthalpies of formation at 298 K, the standard entropies at 298 K, and standard heat capacities in the temperature range 300-1500 K for a large set of organosulfur compounds, that is, thiols, thioketons, polysulfides, alkylsulfides, thials, dithioates, and cyclic sulfur compounds. For a validation set of 26 organosulfur compounds, the mean absolute deviation between experimental and group additively modeled enthalpies of formation amounts to 1.9  kJ mol(-1). For an additional set of 14 organosulfur compounds, it was shown that the mean absolute deviations between calculated and group additively modeled standard entropies and heat capacities are restricted to 4 and 2 J mol(-1) K(-1), respectively. As an alternative to Benson GAVs, 26 new hydrogen-bond increments are reported, which can also be useful for the prediction of radical thermochemistry.

Theoretical study of the thermal decomposition of dimethyl disulfide.

Despite its use in a wide variety of industrially important thermochemical processes, little is known about the thermal decomposition mechanism of dimethyl disulfide (DMDS). To obtain more insight, the radical decomposition mechanism of DMDS is studied theoretically and a kinetic model is developed accounting for the formation of all the decomposition products observed in the experimental studies available in literature. Thermochemical data and rate coefficients are obtained using the high-level CBS-QB3 composite method. Among five methods tested (BMK/6-311G(2d,d,p), MPW1PW91/6-311G(2d,d,p), G3, G3B3, and CBS-QB3), the CBS-QB3 method was found to reproduce most accurately the experimental standard enthalpies of formation for a set of 17 small organosulfur compounds and the bond dissociation energies for a set of 10 sulfur bonds. Enthalpies of formation were predicted within 4 kJ mol(-1) while the mean absolute deviation on the bond dissociation enthalpies amounts to 7 kJ mol(-1). From the theoretical study, a new reaction path is identified for the formation of carbon disulfide via dithiirane (CH(2)S(2)). A reaction mechanism was constructed containing 36 reactions among 25 species accounting for the formation of all the decomposition products reported in literature. High-pressure limit rate coefficients for the 36 reactions in the reaction mechanism are presented. The kinetic model is able to grasp the experimental observations. With the recombination of thiyl radicals treated as being in the low-pressure limit, the experimentally reported first-order rate coefficients for the decomposition of DMDS are reproduced within 1 order of magnitude, while the observed product selectivities of most compounds are reproduced satisfactory. Simulations indicate that at high conversions most of the carbon disulfide forms according to the newly identified reaction path involving the formation of dithiirane.

Modeling the influence of resonance stabilization on the kinetics of hydrogen abstractions.

Resonance stabilization of the transition state is one of the key factors in modeling the kinetics of hydrogen abstraction reactions between hydrocarbons. A group additive model is developed which allows the prediction of rate coefficients for bimolecular hydrogen abstraction reactions over a broad range of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon radicals between 300 and 1300 K. Group additive values for 50 groups are determined from rate coefficients determined using the high level CBS-QB3 ab initio method, corrected for tunneling and the hindered internal rotation around the transitional bond. Resonance and hyperconjugative stabilization of the transition state is accounted for by introducing 4 corrections based on the structure of the reactive moiety of the transition state. The corrections, fitted to a set of 28 reactions, are temperature-independent and reduce the mean absolute deviation on E(a) to 0.7 kJ mol(-1) and to 0.05 for log A. Tunneling contributions are accounted for by using a fourth order polynomial in the activation energy. Final validation for 19 reactions yields a mean factor of deviation between group additive prediction and ab initio calculation of 2.4 at 300 K and 1.8 at 1000 K. In comparison with 6 experimental rate coefficients (600-719 K), the mean factor of deviation is less than 3.

Theoretical study of the thermodynamics and kinetics of hydrogen abstractions from hydrocarbons.

Thermochemical and kinetic data were calculated at four cost-effective levels of theory for a set consisting of five hydrogen abstraction reactions between hydrocarbons for which experimental data are available. The selection of a reliable, yet cost-effective method to study this type of reactions for a broad range of applications was done on the basis of comparison with experimental data or with results obtained from computationally demanding high level of theory calculations. For this benchmark study two composite methods (CBS-QB3 and G3B3) and two density functional theory (DFT) methods, MPW1PW91/6-311G(2d,d,p) and BMK/6-311G(2d,d,p), were selected. All four methods succeeded well in describing the thermochemical properties of the five studied hydrogen abstraction reactions. High-level Weizmann-1 (W1) calculations indicated that CBS-QB3 succeeds in predicting the most accurate reaction barrier for the hydrogen abstraction of methane by methyl but tends to underestimate the reaction barriers for reactions where spin contamination is observed in the transition state. Experimental rate coefficients were most accurately predicted with CBS-QB3. Therefore, CBS-QB3 was selected to investigate the influence of both the 1D hindered internal rotor treatment about the forming bond (1D-HR) and tunneling on the rate coefficients for a set of 21 hydrogen abstraction reactions. Three zero curvature tunneling (ZCT) methods were evaluated (Wigner, Skodje & Truhlar, Eckart). As the computationally more demanding centrifugal dominant small curvature semiclassical (CD-SCS) tunneling method did not yield significantly better agreement with experiment compared to the ZCT methods, CD-SCS tunneling contributions were only assessed for the hydrogen abstractions by methyl from methane and ethane. The best agreement with experimental rate coefficients was found when Eckart tunneling and 1D-HR corrections were applied. A mean deviation of a factor 6 on the rate coefficients is found for the complete set of 21 reactions at temperatures ranging from 298 to 1000 K. Tunneling corrections play a critical role in obtaining accurate rate coefficients, especially at lower temperatures, whereas the hindered rotor treatment only improves the agreement with experiment in the high-temperature range.

Ab initio thermochemistry and kinetics for carbon-centered radical addition and beta-scission reactions.

A quantitative comparison of ab initio calculated rate coefficients using five computational methods and five different approaches of treating hindered internal rotation and tunneling with experimental values of rate coefficients for nine carbon-centered radical additions/beta scissions at 300, 600, and 1000 K is performed. The high-accuracy compound methods, CBS-QB3 and G3B3, and the density functionals, MPW1PW91, BB1K, and BMK, have been evaluated using the following approaches: (i) the harmonic oscillator approximation; (ii) the hindered internal rotor approximation for the internal rotation about the forming/breaking bond in the transition state and product; and the hindered internal rotation approximation combined with (iii) Wigner, (iv) Skodje and Truhlar, and (v) Eckart zero-curvature tunneling corrections. The density functional theory (DFT) based values for beta-scission rate coefficients deviate significantly from the experimental ones at 300 K, and the DFT methods do not accurately predict the equilibrium coefficient. The hindered rotor approximation offers a significant improvement in the agreement with experimental rate coefficients as compared to the harmonic oscillator treatment, especially at higher temperatures. Tunneling correction factors are smaller than 1.40 at 300 K and 1.03 at 1000 K. For both the CBS-QB3 method, including the hindered rotor treatment but excluding tunneling corrections, and the G3B3 method, including hindered rotor and Eckart tunneling corrections, a mean factor of deviation with experimentally observed values of 3 is found.