Investigating the ground-state rotamers of n-propylperoxy radical

Abstract

The n-propylperoxy radical has been described as a molecule of critical importance to studies of low temperature combustion. Ab initio methods were used to study this three-carbon alkylperoxy radical, normal propylperoxy. Reliable CCSD(T) (coupled-cluster theory, incorporating single, double, and perturbative triple)/ANO0 geometries were predicted for the molecule's five rotamers. For each rotamer, energetic predictions were made using basis sets as large as the cc-pV5Z in conjunction with coupled cluster levels of theory up to CCSDT(Q). Along with the extrapolations, corrections for relativistic effects, zero-point vibrational energies, and diagonal Born-Oppenheimer corrections were used to further refine energies. The results indicate that the lowest conformer is the gauche-gauche (GG) rotamer followed by the gauche-trans (0.12 kcal mol above GG), trans-gauche (0.44 kcal mol), gauche'-gauche (0.47 kcal mol), and trans-trans (0.57 kcal mol). Fundamental vibrational frequencies were obtained using second-order vibrational perturbation theory. This is the first time anharmonic frequencies have been computed for this system. The most intense IR features include all but one of the C-H stretches. The O-O fundamental (1063 cm for the GG structure) also has a significant IR intensity, 19.6 km mol. The anharmonicity effects on the potential energy surface were also used to compute vibrationally averaged r bond lengths, accounting for zero-point vibrations present within the molecule.

Unknown Knowns: Case Studies in Uncertainties in the Computation of Thermochemical Parameters

“…Case study IV: CH 3 CH 2 CH 2 OO • n-Propyldioxy or the n-propyl peroxy radical is a key intermediate in the oxidation of propane and has thus been subject of many studies [59][60][61][62][63][64]. Cavity ringdown experiments backed up by electronic structure calculation pinpoint the G1G2 conformer (naming the ∠ OOCC first and the ∠ OCCC second; the third dihedral ∠ HCCC is almost always ignored or is less relevant) as the ground state [65][66][67].…”