How dihalogens catalyze michael addition reactions

We have quantum chemically analyzed the catalytic effect of dihalogen molecules (X2 = F2, Cl2 , Br2, and I2) on the aza-Michael addition of pyrrolidine and methyl acrylate using relativistic density functional theory and coupled-cluster theory. Our state-of-the-art computations reveal that activatio...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Hamlin, Trevor, Fernández López, Israel, Bickelhaupt, Matthias
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2019
País:España
Recursos:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositório:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/101611
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/101611
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:547
Química orgánica (Química)
2306 Química Orgánica
Descrição
Resumo:We have quantum chemically analyzed the catalytic effect of dihalogen molecules (X2 = F2, Cl2 , Br2, and I2) on the aza-Michael addition of pyrrolidine and methyl acrylate using relativistic density functional theory and coupled-cluster theory. Our state-of-the-art computations reveal that activation barriers systematically decrease as one goes to heavier dihalogens, from 9.4 kcalmol@1 for F2 to 5.7 kcalmol@1 for I2. Activation strain and bonding analyses identify an unexpected physical factor that controls the computed reactivity trends, namely, Pauli repulsion between the nucleophile and Michael acceptor. Thus, dihalogens do not accelerate Michael additions by the commonly accepted mechanism of an enhanced donor– acceptor [HOMO(nucleophile) LUMO(Michael acceptor)] interaction, but instead through a diminished Pauli repulsion between the lone-pair of the nucleophile and the Michael acceptorQs p-electron system.