title: Reaction of ketenyl radical with acetylene: a promising route for cyclopropenyl radical.
abstract: The reaction of the ketenyl radical (HCCO) with acetylene (C(2)H(2)) is very relevant to the oxygen-acetylene flames and fuel-rich combustion process for nitrogen-containing compounds. Unfortunately, except for several rate constant measurements, the mechanism is completely unknown for this reaction. In this paper, detailed theoretical investigations are performed for the HCCO + C(2)H(2) reaction at the G3B3 level using the B3LYP/6-31G(d), B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p), and QCISD/6-31G(d) geometries. The exclusive fragmentation channel is the formation of the cyclopropenyl radical (c-C(3)H(3)) and carbon monoxide (CO) via the chainlike OCCHCHCH and three-membered ring OC-cCHCHCH intermediates. Thus, the mass spectroscopic peak of C(3)H(3)(+) in a previous experiment can be explained. The calculated overall reaction barrier is 4.4, 4.4, and 5.3 kcal/mol at the G3B3//B3LYP/6-31G(d), G3B3//B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p), and G3B3//QCISD/6-31G(d) levels, respectively. The title reaction may provide an effective route for generating the long-sought cyclopropenyl radical in the laboratory, which has been the long-standing subject of numerous theoretical studies as the simplest cyclic conjugate radical, and its bulky derivatives were already known. Future experimental investigations for the HCCO + C(2)H(2) reaction are greatly desired to test the predicted fragmentation channel. The implication of the present study in combustion and interstellar processes is discussed.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hong-bin
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Yi-hong
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Chia-chung
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Sun