A density functional theory study of phenyl formation initiated by ethynyl radical (C2H*) and ethyne (C2H2)

An ab initio computational density functional theory (DFT) was used to study the formation of the first cyclic molecule (phenyl) initiated by the ethynyl radical (C(2)H*). The study covers a competition reaction between the addition reactions of C(2)H* with ethyne (C(2)H(2)) and some molecular re-arrangement schemes. The minimum energy paths of the preferred cyclic formation route were characterized. A thorough thermochemical analysis was performed by evaluating the differences in the energy of activation (DeltaE), enthalpy (DeltaH), and Gibb's free energy (DeltaG) of the optimized stable and transition state (TS) molecules. The reaction temperatures were set to normal (T = 298 K) and combustion (T = 1,200 K) conditions.