Ab initio studies on the photodissociation dynamics of the 1,1-difluoroethyl radical

Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics trajectory calculations at the HCTH147/6-31G** level of theory simulate the dissociation dynamics of photolytically excited 1,1-difluoroethyl radicals. EOMCCSD/AUG-cc-pVDZ calculations show that an excitation energy of 94.82 kcal/mol is necessary to initiate photodissociation reactions. In contrast to photodissociation dynamics of ethyl radicals where a large discrepancy between actual dissociation rates and rates that are predicted by statistical rate theories, we find reaction rates of 5.1 × 10¹¹ s^-1 for the dissociation of an H atom, which is in perfect accord with what is predicted by Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) calculations and there is no indication of any nonstatistical effects. However, our trajectory calculations show a much larger fraction of C-C bond breakage reaction of 56% occurring than that expected by RRKM (only 16%).