title: Microsolvated F(-)(H2O) + CH3I S(N)2 Reaction Dynamics. Insight into the Suppressed Formation of Solvated Products.
abstract: Microsolvation offers a bottom-up approach to investigate details of how solute-solvent interactions affect chemical reaction dynamics. The dynamics of the microsolvated S(N)2 reaction F(-)(H2O) + CH3I are uncovered in detail by using direct chemical dynamics simulations. Direct rebound and stripping and indirect atomic-level mechanisms are observed. The indirect events comprise ∼70% of the solvated reaction and occur predominantly via a hydrogen-bonded F(-)(H2O)···HCH2I prereaction complex. The reaction dynamics show propensity for the direct three-body dissociation channel F(-)(H2O) + CH3I → CH3F + I(-) + H2O after passing the reaction's dynamical bottleneck. The water molecule leaves the reactive system before traversing the postreaction region of the PES, where water transfer toward the product species occurs. This provides an insight into the very interesting finding of strongly suppressed formation of energetically favored solvated products for almost all SN2 reactions under microsolvation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Theoretical and Simulation Chemistry, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jiaxu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Theoretical and Simulation Chemistry, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University , Lubbock, Texas 79409, United States.
authors.forename: William L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Hase