Mechanistic Investigation on the Reaction of O^- with CH₃CN Using Density Functional Theory

The potential energy profile of the reaction between the atomic oxygen radical anion and acetonitrile has been mapped at the G3MP2B3 level of theory. Geometries of the reactants, products, intermediate complexes, and transition states involved in this reaction have been optimized at the (U)B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level, and then their accurate relative energies have been improved using the G3MP2B3 method. The potential energy profile is confirmed via intrinsic reaction coordinate calculations of transition states. Four possible production channels are examined respectively, as H⁺ transfer, H-atom transfer, H²⁺ transfer, and bi-molecular nucleophilic substitution (S_N2) reaction pathways. Based on present calculations, the H²⁺ transfer reaction is major among these four channels, which agrees with previous experimental conclusions