Ab initio Computational Insight into the Interaction of Alkyl-substituted Ethene and Sulfenyl Halide

Abstract

The ab initio calculations approach was used to determine the mechanism of interaction between propene and a sulfenyl halide. The second-order Møller-Plesset corrections for the electron correlation energy were applied to calculate the most probable Gibbs Free Energy profiles for the selected reaction. All optimized structures were confirmed by vibrational frequency analysis and intrinsic reaction coordinate calculations. Two possible reaction pathways were proposed and evaluated to conclusively characterize the reaction. The reaction proceeds via formation of a cyclic episulfonium intermediate, stereoselective ring opening of the episulfonium intermediate by the chloride anion, and isomerization of the adduct of the kinetically controlled reaction into the thermodynamically favorable product.