Theoretical characterizations of novel C2H5O+ reactions

Assorted reactions of C2H5O+ isomers are characterized by theory, including tracing their courses by means of intrinsic reaction coordinate computations. We establish that CH3CH=OH+ eliminates methane by transferring H from oxygen to a methyl hydrogen and then to the CC bond to produce CHO++CH4. This adds to the limited knowledge of the involvement of hypervalent structures in the reactions of cations in the gas phase. Second, we characterized the course of CH3CH=OH+-->H3O++HC[triple bond; length as m-dash]CH. In this dissociation, H first migrates from the methyl to the oxygen to give O-protonated vinyl alcohol, a stable intermediate. Then the H2O swings outward to over the middle of the CC bond while one of the two hydrogens on the non-O-bearing carbon revolves to between the oxygen and the two carbons, leading to formation of a [H3O+ HC[triple bond; length as m-dash]CH] complex. This complex contains sufficient energy to dissociate its partners because a high barrier is crossed in its formation. Third, we found that methane elimination from CH3O+=CH2 involves stretching of the CH3---O bond and then rotation of the methyl so that a methyl hydrogen is pointed directly toward the oxygen. This reaction is completed by further rotation of the methyl to abstract a methylene hydrogen to the opposite side of the methyl from that initially bonded to oxygen. This clearly establishes that this dissociation takes place through an ion-neutral complex. Each of the reaction coordinates for the three preceding reactions traverses a novel bonding stage involving H, evidence that such are not unusual in gas phase ion chemistry. Finally, we showed that in the rearrangement CH3O+=CH2-->CH2=O+CH3, before Ht is transferred CH2 rotates around the C=C bond from being in the skeletal plane to being perpendicular to it, and Ht remains in the skeletal plane throughout its transfer. This pathway appears to balance avoiding an orbital symmetry-forbidden suprafacial transition state with minimizing the strain that would be present in an antarafacial transition state for a 1,3-H-shift.