title: tert-Butyl cation affinities of maingroup-element hydrides: effect of methyl substituents at the protophilic center.
abstract: We have conducted an extensive computational exploration of how the gas-phase tert-butyl cation affinities (t-BCA) of archetypal anionic and neutral bases across the periodic system are affected by stepwise replacement of all hydrogen atoms at the protophilic center with methyl substituents. This study was conducted using zeroth-order regular approximation relativistic density functional theory (DFT) at the BP86/QZ4P//BP86/TZ2P level. The trends are interpreted in terms of the steric effects of methyl substituents at the protophilic center of the anionic (Me(m)XH(n-1-m)(-)) and neutral bases (Me(m)XH(n-m)). Besides insight, this work also provides an intrinsically consistent set of values of the 298 K tert-butyl cation affinities of all (partially) methyl-substituted or unsubstituted bases constituted by maingroup-element hydrides of groups 14-16 in anionic cases (Me(m)XH(n-1-m)(-)) and groups 15-17 in neutral ones (Me(m)XH(n-m)) along periods 2-6. The effect of long-range dispersion (van der Waals) interactions was estimated through dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D3) at the BP86-D3/QZ4P//BP86/TZ2P level.
authors: Department of Theoretical Chemistry and Amsterdam Center for Multiscale Modeling, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1083, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Juan M
authors: JM
authors: Ruiz
authors: Célia Fonseca
authors: CF
authors: Guerra
authors: F Matthias
authors: FM
authors: Bickelhaupt