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Updated: Mar 16, 2026

Dissolution Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Instrumentation for Real-time Enzymatic Reaction Rate Measurements by NMR
Published on: February 23, 2016
Mode-Specific SN2 Reaction Dynamics
Yan Wang1,2, Hongwei Song1, István Szabó3
1Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Wuhan 430071, China.
Abstract:
Despite its importance in chemistry, the microscopic dynamics of bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2) reactions is still not completely elucidated. In this publication, the dynamics of a prototypical SN2 reaction (F(-) + CH3Cl → CH3F + Cl(-)) is investigated using a high-dimensional quantum mechanical model on an accurate potential energy surface (PES) and further analyzed by quasi-classical trajectories on the same PES. While the indirect mechanism dominates at low collision energies, the direct mechanism makes a significant contribution. The reactivity is found to depend on the specific reactant vibrational mode excitation. The mode specificity, which is more prevalent in the direct reaction, is rationalized by a transition-state-based model.
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