Origins of solvent-induced enhancement in catalytic reactivity and product selectivity are discussed with computational methods to study them.

Of the three mechanisms for activation of methane on copper and copper oxide surfaces, the under-coordinated Cu–O site pair mediated mechanism on CuO surfaces has the lowest activation energy barriers.

The mechanism of glucose ring opening and isomerization to fructose, catalyzed by the Lewis acid catalyst CrCl3 in the presence of water, is investigated using Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics with metadynamics. Minimum energy pathways for the reactions are revealed and the corresponding free energy barriers are computed. Addition of glucose replaces two water molecules in the active [Cr(H2O)5OH](+2) complex, with two hydroxyl groups of glucose taking their place. Ring opening and isomerization reactions can only proceed if the first step involving the deprotonation of glucose is accompanied by the protonation of the OH(-) group in the partially hydrolyzed metal center ([Cr(C6H12O6)(H2O)3OH](+2) → [Cr(C6H11O6)(H2O)4](+2)). This provides further evidence that the partially hydrolyzed [Cr(H2O)5OH](+2) is the active species catalyzing ring opening and isomerization reactions and that unhydrolyzed Cr(+3) may not be able to catalyze the reactions. After the ring opening, the isomerization reaction proceeds via deprotonation, followed by hydride shift and the back donation of the proton from the metal complex to the sugar. Water molecules outside the first coordination sphere of the metal complex participate in the reaction for mediating the proton transfer. The hydride shift in the isomerization is the overall rate limiting step with a free energy barrier of 104 kJ mol(-1). The simulation computed barrier is in agreement with experiments.

Transition metal oxides are an important class of catalytic materials widely used in the chemical manufacturing and processing industry, owing to their low cost, high surface area, low toxicity, and easily tunable surface and structural properties. For these strongly correlated transition metal oxides, standard approximations in the density functional theory (DFT) exchange-correlation functional fail to describe the electron localization accurately due to the intrinsic errors arising from electron self-interactions. DFT+U method is a widely used extension of DFT, where the Hubbard U term is an onsite potential which puts a penalty on electron delocalization, successfully describing such systems at only slightly higher computational cost than standard DFT methods. The U-value is usually chosen based on its accuracy in reproducing bulk properties like lattice parameters and band structure. However, chemical reactions on transition metal oxide surfaces involve complex surface−adsorbate interactions, and using the bulk properties based U-values in a locally changing surface environment may not describe reaction energetics correctly. Hence, in the current DFT+U benchmarking work, using CuO as a model transition metal oxide, we perform DFT+U calculations to investigate the dissociative chemisorption of H 2 on it. It is observed that the U-value impacts computed adsorption enthalpies by over 100 kJ mol −1 . The DFT+U calculated adsorption enthalpy is compared with the experimental adsorption enthalpy, and equilibrium adsorption configurations are confirmed using infrared analysis. We reveal that the commonly used U-value of 7 eV (fitted against CuO bulk properties) overestimates the adsorption enthalpy by 20−40 kJ mol −1 . The U-value between 4.5 and 5.5 eV correctly predicts the adsorption of H 2 on CuO. The DFT+U benchmarking procedure elucidated in this article, encapsulates surface−adsorbate interactions, surface reactivity, and the dynamic surface reaction environment and, thus, provides an appropriate U-value to be used to model reactions on metal oxide surfaces.

Glycerol was oxidized selectively to oxalic and tartronic acids in 78% yield over a highly crystalline CuO catalyst prepared within a few minutes by a sonochemical synthesis.

Hydride transfer changes the charge structure of the reactant and thus, may induce reorientation/reorganization of solvent molecules. This solvent reorganization may in turn alter the energetics of the reaction. In the present work, we investigate the intramolecular hydride transfer by taking Lewis acid catalyzed glucose to fructose isomerization as an example. The C2-C1 hydride transfer is the rate limiting step in this reaction. Water and methanol are used as solvents and hydride transfer is simulated in the presence of explicit solvent molecules, treated quantum mechanically and at a finite temperature, using Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD) and metadynamics. Activation free energy barrier for hydride transfer in methanol is found to be 50 kJ mol(-1) higher than that in water. In contrast, in density functional theory calculations, using an implicit solvent environment, the barriers are almost identical. Analysis of solvent dynamics and electronic polarization along the molecular dynamics trajectory and the results of CPMD-metadynamics simulation of the hydride transfer process in the absence of any solvent suggest that higher barrier in methanol is a result of non-equilibrium solvation. Methanol undergoes electronic polarization during the hydride transfer step. However, its molecular orientational relaxation is a much slower process that takes place after the hydride transfer, over an extended timescale. This results in non-equilibrium solvation. Water, on the other hand, does not undergo significant electronic polarization and thus, has to undergo minimal molecular reorientation to provide near equilibrium solvation to the transition state and an improved equilibrium solvation to the post hydride shift product state. Hence, the hydride transfer step is also observed to be exergonic in water and endergonic in methanol. The aforementioned explanation is juxtaposed to enzyme catalyzed charge transfer reactions, where the enhanced solvation of the transition and product states by enzymes, due to electrostatic interactions, reduces the activation free energy barrier and the free energy change of the reaction. Similarly, we suggest that, in the intramolecular hydride shift, improved solvation of the transition state and of the product state by water is achieved due to minimal polarization and reorientation, and (near) equilibrium solvation.

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Comprehensive mechanistic insights into the aqueous-phase hydrogenolysis of glycerol by the ReO x –Ir catalyst were obtained by combining density functional theory (DFT) calculations with batch reaction experiments and detailed characterization of the catalysts using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared techniques. The role and contribution of the aqueous acidic reaction medium were investigated using NMR relaxometry studies complemented with molecular dynamics and DFT calculations. At higher glycerol concentration, the enhanced competitive interaction of glycerol with the catalyst improved the conversion of glycerol. Sulfuric acid increased the concentration of glycerol within the pores of the catalyst and enhanced the propensity for dissociative adsorption of glycerol on the catalyst, explaining the promotional effect of acid during hydrogenolysis. Partially reduced and dispersed Brønsted acidic ReO x clusters on metallic Ir nanoparticles facilitated dissociative attachment of glycerol and preferential formation of the primary propoxide. The formation of the dominant product, 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO), results from the selective removal of the secondary hydroxyl of glycerol, with a comparatively low activation barrier of 123.3 kJ mol–1 in the solid Brønsted acid-catalyzed protonation–dehydration mechanism or 165.2 kJ mol–1 in the direct dehydroxylation mechanism. The formation of 1-propanol (1-PO) is likely to follow a successive dehydroxylation pathway in the early stages of the reaction. Although 1,3-PDO is less reactive than 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PDO), it preferentially adsorbs on the catalyst in a mixture containing glycerol to form 1-PO. The thermodynamically favorable pathway involving dehydrogenation, dehydroxylation, and hydrogenation elementary steps led to the dominant production of 1,2-PDO on pure Ir catalyst with a high C–O bond cleavage barrier of 207.4 kJ mol–1. The optimum ReO x –Ir catalyst with an Ir/Re ratio of 1 exploits the synergy of the sites of both the components. The detailed insights presented here would guide the rational selection of catalysts for the hydrogenolysis of polyols and the optimization of reaction parameters.