M. Waroquier

The formation of cyclic hydrocarbons from smaller building blocks such as ethene and propene is investigated in protonated ZSM-5, using a 2-layered ONIOM(B3LYP/6-31+g(d):HF/6-31+g(d)) approach and an additional Grimme-type van der Waals dispersion correction term to account for the long-range dispersion interactions. These cyclic species form precursors for active hydrocarbon pool species and play a key role in activating the acidic zeolite host for successful methanol-to-olefin (MTO) conversion. Starting from trace amounts of ethene and propene that are formed during an initial induction period or during the active phase, dimerization reactions allow for rapid chain growth. The products of these reactions can be neutral alkenes, framework-bound alkoxide species or intermediate carbenium ions, depending on the zeolite environment taken into account. On the basis of rate constants for successive reaction steps, a viable route toward cyclization is proposed, which starts from the formation of a framework-bound propoxide from propene, followed by dimerization with an additional propene molecule to form the 2-hexyl carbenium ion which finally undergoes ring closure to yield methylcyclopentane. This cyclic species in turn forms a precursor for either an active hydrocarbon pool compound or for deactivating coke deposit.

Ring opening of 1-arylmethyl-2-(cyanomethyl)aziridines with HBr afforded 3-(arylmethyl)amino-4-bromobutyronitriles via regiospecific ring opening at the unsubstituted aziridine carbon. Previous experimental and theoretical reports show treatment of the same compounds with benzyl bromide to furnish 4-amino-3-bromobutanenitriles through ring opening at the substituted aziridine carbon. To gain insights into the regioselective preference with HBr, reaction paths have been analyzed with computational methods. The effect of solvation was taken into account by the use of explicit solvent molecules. Geometries were determined at the B3LYP/6-31++G(d,p) level of theory, and a Grimme-type correction term was included for long-range dispersion interactions; relative energies were refined with the meta-hybrid MPW1B95 functional. Activation barriers confirm preference for ring opening at the unsubstituted ring carbon for HBr. HBr versus benzyl bromide ring opening was analyzed through comparison of the electronic structure of corresponding aziridinium intermediates. Although the electrostatic picture fails to explain the opposite regiospecific nature of the reaction, frontier molecular orbital analysis of LUMOs and nucleophilic Fukui functions show a clear preference of attack for the substituted aziridine carbon in the benzyl bromide case and for the unsubstituted aziridine carbon in the HBr case, successfully rationalizing the experimentally observed regioselectivity.

The properties and functions of (bio)molecules are closely related to their molecular conformations. A variety of methods are available to sample the conformational space at a relatively low level of theory. If a higher level of theory is required, the computational cost can be reduced by selecting a uniformly distributed set of conformations from the ensemble of conformations generated at a low level of theory and by optimizing this selected set at a higher level. The generation of conformers is performed using molecular dynamics runs which are analyzed using the MD-Tracks code [ J. Chem. Inf. Model. 2008, 48, 2414]. This article presents a Kennard−Stone-based algorithm, with a distance measure based on the distance matrix, for the selection of the most diverse set of conformations. The method has been successfully applied to macrocyclic alkenes. The correct thermodynamic stability of the double-bond isomers of a flexible macrocyclic alkene containing two chiral centers is reproduced. The double-bond configuration has a limited effect on the conformation of the whole macrocycle. The chirality of the stereocenters has a larger effect on the molecular conformations.

Using periodic DFT calculations, it is concluded that the stable radiation-induced alanine radical most probably is the result of reductive deamination and protonation of the detached amino group, yielding an NH4+ ammonium ion and a negatively charged radical.