Interpretation and application of reaction class transition state theory for accurate calculation of thermokinetic...

We present a further interpretation of reaction class transition state theory (RC-TST) proposed by Truong et al. for the accurate calculation of rate coefficients for reactions in a class. It is found that the RC-TST can be interpreted through the isodesmic reaction method, which is usually used to calculate reaction enthalpy or enthalpy of formation for a species, and the theory can also be used for the calculation of the reaction barriers and reaction enthalpies for reactions in a class. A correction scheme based on this theory is proposed for the calculation of the reaction barriers and reaction enthalpies for reactions in a class. To validate the scheme, 16 combinations of various ab initio levels with various basis sets are used as the approximate methods and CCSD(T)/CBS method is used as the benchmarking method in this study to calculate the reaction energies and energy barriers for a representative set of five reactions from the reaction class: R(c)CH(R(b))CR(a)CH2 + OH(•) → R(c)C(•)(R(b))CR(a)CH2 + H2O (R(a), R(b), and R(c) in the reaction formula represent the alkyl or hydrogen). Then the results of the approximate methods are corrected by the theory. The maximum values of the average deviations of the energy barrier and the reaction enthalpy are 99.97 kJ/mol and 70.35 kJ/mol, respectively, before correction and are reduced to 4.02 kJ/mol and 8.19 kJ/mol, respectively, after correction, indicating that after correction the results are not sensitive to the level of the ab initio method and the size of the basis set, as they are in the case before correction. Therefore, reaction energies and energy barriers for reactions in a class can be calculated accurately at a relatively low level of ab initio method using our scheme. It is also shown that the rate coefficients for the five representative reactions calculated at the BHandHLYP/6-31G(d,p) level of theory via our scheme are very close to the values calculated at CCSD(T)/CBS level. Finally, reaction barriers and reaction enthalpies and rate coefficients of all the target reactions calculated at the BHandHLYP/6-31G(d,p) level of theory via the same scheme are provided.