Quantum Suppression of Intramolecular Deuterium Kinetic Isotope Effects in a Pericyclic Hydrogen Transfer Reaction

The Journal of Physical Chemistry A vol. 123  p. 3647-3654  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.9b00172
PMID/PMCID: PMC6661151 Published: 2019-03-12 


Xiao Li, Darrin M. York [ ] , Matthew P. Meyer

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Abstract

It is generally accepted that hydrogen tunneling enhances both primary and secondary H/D kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) over what would be expected under the assumptions of classical barrier transition. Previous studies have exclusively shown that the effects of tunneling upon primary H/D KIEs have been much larger than those observed for secondary H/D KIEs. Here we present a series of experimental H/D KIE results associated with the Chugaev elimination of methyl xanthate derived from ß-phenylethanol over the temperature range of 180 to 290 °C. Intramolecular H/D KIEs computed according to classical transition state theory (TST) are markedly overestimated relative to experimentally measured values. Experimental intermolecular H/D KIEs and direct dynamic calculations based on canonical variational transition state theory (CVT) with small-curvature tunneling correction (SCT) reveal that this result is largely the consequence of extraordinary tunneling enhancement of the secondary H/D KIE. This unexpected behavior is examined in the context of other similar hydrogen transfer reactions.