Extraordinary Difference in Reactivity of Ozone (OOO) and Sulfur Dioxide (OSO): A Theoretical Study

Ozone and sulfur dioxide are valence isoelectronic yet show very different reactivity. While ozone is one of the most reactive 1,3-dipoles, SO2 does not react in this way at all. The activation energies of dipolar cycloadditions of sulfur dioxide with either ethylene or acetylene are predicted here by B3LYP, M06-2X, CBS-QB3, and CCSD(T) to be much higher than reactions of ozone. The dipolar cycloaddition of ozone is very exothermic, while that of than sulfur dioxide is endothermic. The prohibitive barriers in the case of SO2 arise from large distortion energies as well as unfavorable interaction energies in the transition states. This arises in part from the HOMO-LUMO gap of sulfur dioxide, which is larger than that of ozone. Valence bond calculations also show that while ozone has a high degree of diradical character, SO2 does not, and is better characterized as a dritterion.