title: Potential energy surfaces for gas-phase SN2 reactions involving nitriles and substituted nitriles.
abstract: The stationary points on the potential energy surfaces for a number of gas-phase S(N)2 reactions have been determined using a combination of pulsed ionization high-pressure mass spectrometry. MP2/6-311++G**//B3LYP/6-311+G** calculations are shown to provide excellent agreement with the experimentally determined values, providing confidence for the use of this computational method to predict values that are not available experimentally. The binding in the halide/nitrile complexes has been described in the past as either hydrogen bonding or electrostatic bonding. The trends in the binding energies observed here, though, cannot be rationalized in terms of simply hydrogen bonding or ion-dipole bonding but a mixture of the two. The computed structures support the description of binding as a mixture of hydrogen bonding and ion-dipole bonding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1C 5S7. tfridgen@wlu.ca
authors.forename: Travis D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Fridgen
authors.forename: Jami L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Burkell
authors.forename: Ashraf N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Wilsily
authors.forename: Vicki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Josh
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wasylycia
authors.forename: Terry B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: McMahon