Publications by authors named "Donald W Setser"

Chemical activation experiments and computational methods have been used to study the unimolecular reactions of CHCHBr and CDCHFBr with 90 and 93 kcal mol of vibrational energy, respectively. The four-centered elimination reactions of HBr and DBr are the dominant reactions; however, 2,1-DF, 1,1-HBr, and 1,1-HF reactions are also observed from CDCHFBr. The main focus was to search for the role of the CD(F)C:HBr adduct in the 1,1-HBr elimination for comparison with carbene adducts in 1,1-HX(Y) elimination from RCHXY (X,Y = Cl and F) molecules.

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Born-Oppenheimer direct dynamics simulations were performed to study atomistic details of the F + CHCN → HF + CHCN H-atom abstraction reaction. The simulation trajectories were calculated with a combined M06-2X/MP2 algorithm utilizing the 6-311++G** basis set. The experiments were performed at 300 K, and assuming the accuracy of transition state theory (TST), the trajectories were initiated at the F⋯HCHCN abstraction TS with a 300 K Boltzmann distribution of energy and directed towards products.

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Vibrationally excited CF2BrCF2CH3 and CF2BrCF2CD3 molecules were prepared with 96 kcal mol-1 energy at room temperature by the recombination of CF2BrCF2 and CH3 (CD3) radicals. The observed unimolecular reactions are 1,2-BrF interchange to give CF3CFBrCH3 (CD3) molecules and 2,3-FH (FD) elimination; the rate constants are 2.2 x 10(5) (1.

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A single trajectory (ST) direct dynamics approach is compared with quasiclassical trajectory (QCT) direct dynamics calculations for determining product energy partitioning in unimolecular dissociation. Three comparisons are made by simulating C(2)H(5)F-->HF + C(2)H(4) product energy partitioning for the MP26-31G(*) and MP26-311 + + G(**) potential energy surfaces (PESs) and using the MP26-31G(*) PES for C(2)H(5)F dissociation as a model to simulate CHCl(2)CCl(3)-->HCl + C(2)Cl(4) dissociation and its product energy partitioning. The trajectories are initiated at the transition state with fixed energy in reaction-coordinate translation E(t) (double dagger).

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Direct dynamics simulations at the MP2/6-311++G** level of theory were performed to study C(2)H(5)F --> HF + C(2)H(4) product energy partitioning. The simulation results are compared with experiment and a previous MP2/6-31G* simulation. The current simulation with the larger basis set releases more energy to HF vibration and less to HF + C(2)H(4) relative translation as compared to the previous simulation with the 6-31G* basis set.

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