The stability of phenylpentazole along with para-substituted and ortho,para-substituted arylpentazoles have been studied using high-level density functional theory (DFT). The decomposition of arylpentazoles to N 2 and the corresponding azide is a first-order reaction, where the breaking of the N1-N2 bond is concomitant with cleavage of the N3-N4 bond. Calculations confirm that the stability of arylpentazoles increases with electron-donating groups and decreases with electron-withdrawing groups, in the para position, as found in experiments. The stabilizing effect of the electron-donating groups is shown to be due to a resonance interaction with the electron-withdrawing pentazole ring. Addition of solvation effects, using the polarizable continuum model to simulate the polar solvent methanol, increases the stability of arylpentazoles. This is due to a more polar ground state than transition state. The calculated free energies of activation for the arylpentazoles agree well with experimental results. From the calculations, the electron-withdrawing effect of the pentazole group is found to be similar to that of cyanide (-CN). Some new arylpentazoles with hydroxyl groups in the ortho position are proposed. These are predicted to be more stable than all previously synthesized neutral arylpentazoles.

Amination of halobenzenes, which proceeds via the benzyne intermediate (1), has been studied using quantum chemical methods. The computational data are in agreement with experimentally observed trends in reactivity and provide a qualitative explanation for the observed hydrogen isotope effects. To investigate if this is a viable way to isolate the pentazolate anion (2), the reactivities of the halobenzenes have been compared to phenylpentazole (3). The reaction energetics for phenylpentazole become favorable after complexation with Zn(2+).