title: Revisiting the Dielectric Constant Effect on the Nucleophile and Leaving Group of Prototypical Backside SN2 Reactions: A Reaction Force and Atomic Contribution Analysis.
abstract: The solvent effect on the nucleophile and leaving group atoms of the prototypical F-+ CH3Cl → CH3F + Cl-backside bimolecular nucleophilic substitution reaction (SN2) is analyzed employing the reaction force and the atomic contributions methods on the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC). Solvent effects were accounted for using the polarizable continuum solvent model. Calculations were performed employing 11 dielectric constants, ε, ranging from 1.0 to 78.5, to cover a wide spectrum of solvents. The reaction force data reveal that the solvent mainly influences the region of the IRC preceding the energy barrier, where the structural rearrangement to reach the transition state occurs. A detailed analysis of the atomic role in the reaction as a function of ε reveals that the nucleophile and the carbon atom are the ones that contribute the most to the energy barrier. In addition, we investigated the effect of the choice of nucleophile and leaving group on the ΔE0and ΔE‡of Y-+ CH3X → YCH3+ X-(X, Y = F, Cl, Br, I) in aqueous solution. Our analysis allowed us to find relationships between the atomic contributions to the activation energy and leaving group ability and nucleophilicity.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Quı́mica, Universidad Nacional de Colombia , Av. Cra 30 # 45-03, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pedraza-González
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Quı́mica, Universidad Nacional de Colombia , Av. Cra 30 # 45-03, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Johan F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Galindo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Quı́mica, Universidad Nacional de Colombia , Av. Cra 30 # 45-03, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Quı́mica, Universidad Nacional de Colombia , Av. Cra 30 # 45-03, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reyes