The reaction of ground state carbon atoms, C(3Pj), with dimethylacetylene, H3CCCCH3, was studied at three collision energies between 21.2 and 36.9 kJmol−1 employing the crossed molecular beam approach. Our experiments were combined with ab initio and RRKM calculations. It is found that the reaction is barrierless via a loose, early transition state located at the centrifugal barrier following indirect scattering dynamics through a complex. C(3Pj) attacks the π system of the dimethylacetylene molecule to form a dimethylcyclopropenylidene intermediate either in one step via an addition to C1 and C2 of the acetylenic bond or through an addition to only one carbon atom to give a short-lived cis/trans dimethylpropenediylidene intermediates followed by ring closure. The cyclic intermediate ring opens to a linear dimethylpropargylene radical which rotates almost parallel to the total angular momentum vector J. This complex fragments to atomic hydrogen and a linear 1-methylbutatrienyl radical, H2CCCCCH3(X2A″), via a tight exit transition state located about 18 kJmol−1 above the separated products. The experimentally determined exothermicity of 190±25 kJmol−1 is in strong agreement with our calculated data of 180±10 kJmol−1. The explicit verification of the carbon versus hydrogen exchange pathway together with the first identification of the H2CCCCCH3 radical represents a third pathway to form chain C5H5 radicals in the reactions of C(3Pj) with C4H6 isomers under single collision conditions. Previous experiments of atomic carbon with the 1,3-butadiene isomer verified the formation of 1- and 3-vinylpropargyl radicals, HCCCHC2H3(X2A″), and H2CCCC2H3(X2A″), respectively. In high-density environments such as combustion flames and circumstellar envelopes of carbon stars, these linear isomers can undergo collision-induced ring closure(s) and/or H atom migration(s) which can lead to the cyclopentadienyl radical. The latter is thought to be a crucial reactive intermediate in soot formation and possibly in the production of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules in outflow of carbon stars. Likewise, a H atom catalyzed isomerization can interconvert the 3-vinylpropargyl and the 1-methylbutatrienyl radical.

Abstract:To find low energy Si n C n structures out of hundreds to thousands of isomers we have developed a general method to search for stable isomeric structures that combines Stochastic Potential Surface Search and Pseudopotential Plane-Wave Density Functional Theory Car-Parinello Molecular Dynamics simulated annealing (PSPW-CPMD-SA). We enhanced the Sunders stochastic search method to generate random cluster structures used as seed structures for PSPW-CPMD-SA simulations. This method ensures that each SA simulation samples a different potential surface region to find the regional minimum structure. By iterations of this automated, parallel process on a high performance computer we located hundreds to more than a thousand stable isomers for each Si n C n cluster. Among these, five to 10 of the lowest energy isomers were further optimized using B3LYP/cc-pVTZ method. We applied this method to Si n C n (n = 4-12) clusters and found the lowest energy structures, most not previously reported. By analyzing the bonding patterns of low energy structures of each Si n C n cluster, we observed that carbon segregations tend to form condensed conjugated rings while Si connects to unsaturated bonds at the periphery of the carbon segregation as single atoms or clusters when n is small and when n is large a silicon network spans over the carbon segregation region.