Mechanisms of difluoroethylene ozonolysis: a density functional theory study

We present a density functional theory (DFT) study on the mechanisms of gas-phase ozonolysis of three isomers of difluoroethylene, namely, cis-1,2-difluoroethylene, trans-1,2-difluoroethylene, and 1,1-difluoroethylene. MPW1K/cc-pVDZ and BHandHLYP/cc-pVDZ methods are employed to optimize the geometries of stationary points as well as the points on the minimum energy path (MEP). The energies of all the points were further refined at the QCISD(T)/cc-pVDZ and QCISD(T)/6-31+G(df,p) levels of theory with zero-point energy (ZPE) corrections. The ozone-cis-1,2-difluoroethylene reaction is predicted to be slower than the ozone-trans-1,2-difluoroethylene reaction. The enhanced reactivity of trans-1,2-difluoroethylene relative to the cis isomer is similar to the reactions of ozone with cis- and trans-dichloroethylene. The ozone-1,1-difluoroethylene reaction is predicted to be slower than the ozone-trans-1,2-difluoroethylene reaction. These results are in agreement with experimental studies. The calculated mechanisms indicate that in ozone-difluoroethylene reactions the yields of OH might be trivial, which is different from the reactions of ozone with unsaturated hydrocarbons.