PCM study of the solvent and substituent effects on bond dissociation energies of the CNO bond

Abstract

AbstractQuantum chemical calculations are used to estimate the equilibrium CNO bond dissociation energies (BDEs) for eight XNO molecule (X = CCl3, C6F5, CH3, CH3CH2, iC3H7, tC4H9, CH2CHCH2, and C6H5CH2). These compounds are studied by employing the hybrid density functional theory (B3LYP, B3PW91, B3P86) methods together with 6‐31G** and 6‐311G** basis sets and the complete basis set (CBS‐QB3) method. The obtained results are compared with the available experimental results. It is demonstrated that B3P86/6‐31G** and CBS‐QB3 methods are accurate for computing the reliable BDEs for the XNO molecule. Considering the inevitably computational cost of CBS‐QB3 method and the reliability of the B3P86 calculations, B3P86 method with 6‐31G** basis set may be more suitable to calculate the BDEs of the CNO bond. The solvent effects on the BDEs of the CNO bond are analyzed and it is shown that the CNO BDEs in a vacuum computed by using B3PW91/6‐311G** method are the closest to the computed values in acetontrile and the average solvent effect is 1.48 kcal/mol. Subsequently, the substituent effects of the BDEs of the CNO bond are further analyzed and it is found that electron denoting group stabilizes the radical and as a result BDE decreases; whereas electron withdrawing group stabilizes the group state of the molecule and thus increases the BDE from the parent molecule. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2009