Journal of the American Chemical Society
Journal of the American Chemical Society
5 years ago

Isotope-Controlled Selectivity by Quantum Tunneling: Hydrogen Migration versus Ring Expansion in Cyclopropylmethylcarbenes

Isotope-Controlled Selectivity by Quantum Tunneling: Hydrogen Migration versus Ring Expansion in Cyclopropylmethylcarbenes
Ashim Nandi, Weston Thatcher Borden, Peter R. Schreiner, Sebastian Kozuch, Dennis Gerbig
Using the tunneling-controlled reactivity of cyclopropylmethylcarbene, we demonstrate the viability of isotope-controlled selectivity (ICS), a novel control element of chemical reactivity where a molecular system with two conceivable products of tunneling exclusively produces one or the other, depending only on isotopic composition. Our multidimensional small-curvature tunneling (SCT) computations indicate that, under cryogenic conditions, 1-methoxycyclopropylmethylcarbene shows rapid H-migration to 1-methoxy-1-vinylcyclopropane, whereas deuterium-substituted 1-methoxycyclopropyl-d3-methylcarbene undergoes ring expansion to 1-d3-methylcyclobutene. This predicted change in reactivity constitutes the first example of a kinetic isotope effect that discriminates between the formation of two products.

Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b04593

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b04593

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.