Spin Catalysis over Conductive Solids: Enhancing the Rate of Model C−C Bond Cracking over Carbon Nanoparticles

Abstract

AbstractThe concept of catalysis over a spin‐conductive mediator is investigated with quantum‐chemical calculations. Specifically, homolytic C−C bond cleavage in ethane over small edge‐oxidized half‐metallic carbon clusters in the presence of a methyl radical was considered with the complete active space self‐consistent field method. The methyl radical (spin catalyst) and carbon cluster (mediator) are found to share a common electronic orbital containing the radical unpaired electron, allowing nascent radicals emerging from ethane dissociation to interact with the spin catalyst through the carbon electronic system. This could result in spin flip, affording formation of a triplet radical pair not prone to recombination and thus resulting in the acceleration of the reaction rate. This demonstrates that new pathways may open up in controlled catalytic processes by allowing normally spin‐forbidden reactions and not necessarily lowering activation barriers in the traditional sense of catalysis.