Reactivity Prediction of Cu-Catalyzed Halogen Atom Transfer Reactions Using Data-Driven Techniques

In catalysis, linear free energy relationships (LFERs) are commonly used to identify reaction descriptors that enable the prediction of outcomes and the design of more effective catalysts. Herein, LFERs are established for the reductive cleavage of the C(sp³)-X bond in alkyl halides (RX) by Cu complexes. This reaction represents the activation step in atom transfer radical polymerization and atom transfer radical addition/cyclization. The values of the activation rate constant, k_act, for 107 Cu complex/RX couples in 5 different solvents spanning over 13 orders of magnitude were effectively interpolated by the equation: log k_act = s(I + C + S), where I, C, and S are, respectively, the initiator, catalyst, and solvent parameters, and s is the catalyst-specific sensitivity parameter. Furthermore, each of these parameters was correlated to relevant descriptors, which included the bond dissociation free energy of RX and its Tolman cone angle θ, the electron affinity of X, the radical stabilization energy, the standard reduction potential of the Cu complex, the polarizability parameter π* of the solvent, and the distortion energy of the complex in its transition state. This set of descriptors establishes the fundamental properties of Cu complexes and RX that determine their reactivity and that need to be considered when designing novel systems for atom transfer radical reactions. Finally, a multivariate linear regression (MLR) approach was adopted to develop an objective model that surpassed the predictive capability of the LFER equation. Thus, the MLR model was employed to predict k_act values for >2000 Cu complex/RX pairs.