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Updated: Jun 7, 2026

Isolating Free Carbenes, their Mixed Dimers and Organic Radicals
Published on: April 19, 2019
Kinetics of hydrogen abstraction reactions of butene isomers by OH radical
1Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA. hsun@princeton.edu
Abstract:
The rate coefficients of H-abstraction reactions of butene isomers by the OH radical were determined by both canonical variational transition-state theory and transition-state theory, with potential energy surfaces calculated at the CCSD(T)/6-311++G(d,p)//BH&HLYP/6-311G(d,p) level and CCSD(T)/6-311++G(d,p)//BH&HLYP/cc-pVTZ level and quantum mechanical tunneling effect corrected by either the small-curvature tunneling method or the Eckart method. While 1-butene contains allylic, vinylic, and alkyl hydrogens that can be abstracted to form different butene radicals, results reveal that s-allylic H-abstraction channels have low and broad energy barriers, and they are the most dominant channels which can occur via direct and indirect H-abstraction channels. For the indirect H-abstraction s-allylic channel, the reaction can proceed via forming two van der Waals prereactive complexes with energies that are 2.7-2.8 kcal mol(-1) lower than that of the entrance channel at 0 K. Assuming that neither mixing nor crossover occurs between different reaction pathways, the overall rate coefficient was calculated by summing the rate coefficients of the s-allyic, methyl, and vinyl H-abstraction paths and found to agree well with the experimentally measured OH disappearance rate. Furthermore, the rate coefficients of p-allylic H abstraction of cis-2-butene, trans-2-butene, and isobutene by the OH radical were also determined at 300-1500 K, with results analyzed and compared with available experimental data.
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