The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of diazomethane with ethylene and formaldehyde as well as the nitrogen
elimination reactions from the cycloadducts have been studied using density functional and conventional ab
initio methods. The exothermicity of the reactions is underestimated by DFT methods with respect to CCSD(T) due to an overestimation of the C−N dissociation energy of diazomethane. For the cycloaddition reactions
all methods lead to similar transition state geometries, and the potential energy barriers computed using DFT
methods are similar to the CCSD(T) ones. On the other hand, for the nitrogen elimination reactions transition
state geometries and energy barriers are more dependent on the level of calculation. The results obtained
show that for the reaction between diazomethane and ethylene the pyrazoline intermediate is more stable
than the reactants and that the Gibbs energy barrier for nitrogen elimination is larger than the barrier
corresponding to its formation. On the contrary, for formaldehyde the kinetically most favorable cycloadduct,
1,2,3-oxadiazoline, is less stable than the reactants and has a lower barrier for nitrogen elimination.