{"id":11246,"date":"2013-09-19T14:21:39","date_gmt":"2013-09-19T13:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=11246"},"modified":"2013-09-20T08:15:58","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T07:15:58","slug":"patterns-of-behaviour-serendipity-in-action-for-enantiomerisation-of-f-s-s-cl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=11246","title":{"rendered":"Patterns of behaviour: serendipity in action for enantiomerisation of F-S-S-Cl"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"kcite-section\" kcite-section-id=\"11246\">\n<p>Paul Schleyer sent me an email about a pattern he had spotted, between <a title=\"The dimer of SF2: small is beautiful (and weird).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=11165\" target=\"_blank\">my post on F<\/a><a title=\"The dimer of SF2: small is beautiful (and weird).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=11165\" target=\"_blank\"><sub>3<\/sub><\/a><a title=\"The dimer of SF2: small is beautiful (and weird).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=11165\" target=\"_blank\">SSF<\/a> and some work he and\u00a0Michael Mauksch had done 13 years ago with the intriguing title &#8220;<em>Demonstration of Chiral Enantiomerization in a Four-Atom Molecule<\/em>&#8220;.<span id=\"cite_ITEM-11246-0\" name=\"citation\"><a href=\"#ITEM-11246-0\">[1]<\/a><\/span> Let me explain the connection, but also to follow-up further on what I discovered in <a title=\"The dimer of SF2: small is beautiful (and weird).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=11165\" target=\"_blank\">that post <\/a>and how a new connection evolved.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/FSSF3-gen.svg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11247\" alt=\"FSSF3-gen\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/FSSF3-gen.svg\" width=\"350\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The prologue (or prequel). Reaction <strong>2<\/strong> is the path for decomposing the dimer of SF<sub>2<\/sub> (X=F) to two monomers. In the previous post I (eventually) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=11165&amp;cpage=1#comment-63482\" target=\"_blank\">found<\/a> the transition state for this process, with a relatively low energy barrier. As a mechanistic type, it is known as a reductive elimination (the reverse would be a oxidative addition) since the S atom on the left is reduced from a formal oxidation state of S(IV) to S(II) (or <em>vice versa<\/em>). Analogues of this reaction are <strong>1<\/strong> and <strong>3<\/strong>. But before I managed to locate the transition state for reaction <strong>2<\/strong>, I accidentally found the transition state for reaction <strong>4<\/strong>. This retains the S-S bond (at the transition state, this bond is actually shorter than in reactant\/product), and is what might be called a two-electron pericyclic redox reaction, since the S on the left is reduced to S(II) and the S on the right is oxidised to S(IV). I have not yet found whether this actually represents a new mechanistic type or not; it does not appear to have a name (should it be called <em>periredox<\/em>? Or <em>redoxocyclic<\/em>?). The lesson to be learnt here is that nature normally indulges in the (more or less) lowest energy route to a given target, but quantum chemists have the advantage that they can discover &#8220;chemistry in the clouds&#8221;; patterns of behaviour requiring too much energy to be seen in the real world and hence permanently hidden from us. But that does not mean we cannot learn chemistry from them.<\/p>\n<p>Thus isomeric reaction <strong>4<\/strong> is very much higher in energy than <strong>2<\/strong>. But it is what triggered Paul&#8217;s memory. Reaction <strong>5<\/strong> is related both to <strong>4<\/strong> in that it involves a [1,2] hydrogen shift of X (retaining the S-S bond) followed by a second [1,2] shift of Y. It is also related to <strong>2<\/strong> since it involves in effect an oxidative addition (by a lone pair) to an S-X bond to generate S(IV), followed by a reductive elimination back to S(II) to regenerate the enantiomer of the reactant (it is thus a two-step redox reaction). Thus if X and Y are different in <strong>5<\/strong>, then all three of the species shown above are themselves chiral, and hence the reaction is indeed a &#8220;<em>Demonstration of Chiral Enantiomerization in a Four-Atom Molecule&#8221;.<\/em> The point here is that enantiomerisations do not necessarily have to proceed through an achiral transition state, but that the entire enantiomerisation pathway can be <a href=\"http:\/\/symmetry.hu\/content\/fowler-05-4.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">continuously chiral<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That was the intro! Now follows my calculated intrinsic reaction coordinate (\u03c9B97XD\/6-311G(d,p) for reaction <strong>5<\/strong>.<span id=\"cite_ITEM-11246-1\" name=\"citation\"><a href=\"#ITEM-11246-1\">[2]<\/a><\/span> My first attempt at the transition state was to use <strong>2<\/strong> as a template (rather than <strong>4<\/strong>, which was far higher in energy). Well, talk about unexpected! The migration of X=Cl is 16.7 kcal\/mol lower than X=F. \u00a0No problem there. Next, the IRC for X=F. The overall process certainly enantiomerises the two chiral <em>gauche<\/em> conformations, but without transposing X and Y, and not involving an intermediate S(IV) species as shown in reaction <strong>5<\/strong> (<em>i.e.<\/em>\u00a0it goes directly, <em>via<\/em> reaction <strong>6<\/strong>).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11254\" alt=\"FSSCl\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/FSSCl.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"311\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But look at that energy! Way too high (above the clouds in fact). And although the start and end species are identical (apart from being enantiomers) the energy profile is far from being symmetrical.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11256\" alt=\"FSSClE\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/FSSClE.svg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As for the gradient norms, where to begin? The TS as always is at IRC =0.0 But in between it and the start and end points one can see no less than THREE &#8220;<em>hidden intermediates<\/em>&#8220;. Two of them are in fact exactly <em>cis<\/em> (IRC=3.5) and <em>trans<\/em> (IRC = 5.0) planar forms of F-S-S-Cl. At these points, the pathway is clearly achiral! The third (IRC = 1.0) is a fascinating species in which the S-S bond is largely broken and it is bridged by an F. So this pathway involves S-S cleavage, just like <strong>2<\/strong>. It is entirely serendipitous; no-one in their right mind would actually set out to find it!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11255\" alt=\"FSSClEG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/FSSClEG.svg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Well, since <strong>2<\/strong> as a template led to the above, what happens when <strong>4<\/strong> is used? For F migrating<span id=\"cite_ITEM-11246-2\" name=\"citation\"><a href=\"#ITEM-11246-2\">[3]<\/a><\/span> a barrier 11.6 kcal\/mol higher is found than for Cl migrating<span id=\"cite_ITEM-11246-3\" name=\"citation\"><a href=\"#ITEM-11246-3\">[4]<\/a><\/span>, similar to that previously reported.<span id=\"cite_ITEM-11246-0\" name=\"citation\"><a href=\"#ITEM-11246-0\">[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11261\" alt=\"FSSClpa\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/FSSClpa.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"311\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The energy and gradient norm profiles, in comparison to the previous, are uneventful.<span id=\"cite_ITEM-11246-4\" name=\"citation\"><a href=\"#ITEM-11246-4\">[5]<\/a><\/span> The\u00a0S-S bond stays intact throughout, and it is shorter at the transition state (1.846\u00c5) than at \u00a0the start (1.950\u00c5) or the end (1.874\u00c5). This reaction has got its feet on the ground, rather than its head in the clouds!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/FSSClpaG.svg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11262\" alt=\"FSSClpaG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/FSSClpaG.svg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11263\" alt=\"FSSClpaE\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/FSSClpaE.svg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I am reminded of stories our crystallographer here tells. Students bring him synthesized molecules for their structures to be determined, and quite frequently it&#8217;s not at all the compound that was desired. For not a few highly focused students, the compound is quickly forgotten, even though it may have turned out to be very unusual. Likely it will not be <a title=\"A two-publisher model for the scientific article: narrative+shared data.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=10998\" target=\"_blank\">deposited into a repository<\/a>. And how many compounds that might otherwise have been the catalyst for new and unusual discoveries are thus lost? \u00a0So never throw away an unexpected result (yes, even a calculation). \u00a0There is probably something you could learn from it!\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>References<\/h2>\n    <ol class=\"kcite-bibliography csl-bib-body\"><li id=\"ITEM-11246-1\">H.S. Rzepa, \"Gaussian Job Archive for ClFS2\", 2013. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.6084\/m9.figshare.801866\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.6084\/m9.figshare.801866<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"ITEM-11246-2\">H.S. Rzepa, \"Gaussian Job Archive for ClFS2\", 2013. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.6084\/m9.figshare.803096\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.6084\/m9.figshare.803096<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"ITEM-11246-3\">H.S. Rzepa, \"Gaussian Job Archive for ClFS2\", 2013. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.6084\/m9.figshare.802822\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.6084\/m9.figshare.802822<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"ITEM-11246-4\">H.S. Rzepa, \"Gaussian Job Archive for ClFS2\", 2013. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.6084\/m9.figshare.802821\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.6084\/m9.figshare.802821<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<\/div> <!-- kcite-section 11246 -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Schleyer sent me an email about a pattern he had spotted, between my post on F3SSF and some work he and\u00a0Michael Mauksch had done 13 years ago with the intriguing title &#8220;Demonstration of Chiral Enantiomerization in a Four-Atom Molecule&#8220;. Let me explain the connection, but also to follow-up further on what I discovered in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":5,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,931,1135,1131,1130,1134,1133,1132],"ppma_author":[2661],"class_list":["post-11246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting-chemistry","tag-energy","tag-energy-profile","tag-head","tag-low-energy-barrier","tag-lowest-energy-route","tag-michael-mauksch","tag-paul-schleyer","tag-reactantproduct"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Patterns of behaviour: serendipity in action for enantiomerisation of F-S-S-Cl - Henry Rzepa&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=11246\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patterns of behaviour: serendipity in action for enantiomerisation of F-S-S-Cl - Henry Rzepa&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Paul Schleyer sent me an email about a pattern he had spotted, between my post on F3SSF and some work he and\u00a0Michael Mauksch had done 13 years ago with the intriguing title &#8220;Demonstration of Chiral Enantiomerization in a Four-Atom Molecule&#8220;. 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A different light on the bromination of benzene.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"March 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"My previous post related to the aromatic electrophilic substitution of benzene using as electrophile phenyl diazonium chloride. Another prototypical reaction, and again one where benzene is too inactive for the reaction to occur easily, is the catalyst-free bromination of benzene to give bromobenzene and HBr.\u00a0 The \"text-book\" mechanism involves nucleophilic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Interesting chemistry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Interesting chemistry","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"br2+benzene","src":"http:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/br2+benzene.svg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12560,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=12560","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":1},"title":"Benzene: an oscillation or a vibration?","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"May 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In the preceding post, a nice discussion broke out about Kekul\u00e9's 1872 model for benzene. This model has become known as the oscillation hypothesis between two extreme forms of benzene (below). The discussion centered around the semantics of the term oscillation compared to vibration (a\u00a0synonym or not?) and the timescale\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Historical&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Historical","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=565"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13083,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=13083","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":2},"title":"Halogen bonds: Part 1.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"November 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Halogen bonds are less familiar cousins to hydrogen bonds. They are defined as non-covalent interactions (NCI) between a halogen atom (X, acting as a Lewis acid, in accepting electrons) and a Lewis base D donating electrons; D....X-A vs D...H-A. They are superficially surprising, since both D and X look like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;crystal_structure_mining&quot;","block_context":{"text":"crystal_structure_mining","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=1745"},"img":{"alt_text":"halogen-search","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/halogen-search.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17692,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=17692","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":3},"title":"What is the (calculated) structure of a norbornyl cation anion-pair in water?","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"April 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In a comment appended to an earlier post, I mused about the magnitude of the force constant relating to the interconversion between a classical and a non-classical structure for the norbornyl cation. Most calculations indicate the force constant for an \"isolated\" symmetrical cation\u00a0is +ve, which means it is a true\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;crystal_structure_mining&quot;","block_context":{"text":"crystal_structure_mining","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=1745"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/b3lypd3bj.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15992,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=15992","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":4},"title":"Celebrating Paul  Schleyer: searching for hidden treasures in the structures of metallocene complexes.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"April 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A celebration of the life and work of the great chemist\u00a0Paul von R. Schleyer was held this week in Erlangen, Germany. There were many fantastic talks given by some great chemists describing fascinating chemistry. Here I highlight the presentation\u00a0given by\u00a0Andy Streitwieser on the topic of organolithium chemistry, also a great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chemical IT&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chemical IT","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":936,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=936","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":5},"title":"Full circle with carbon hypervalencies","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"October 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The previous post talked about making links or connections. And part of the purpose for presenting this chemistry as a blog is to expose how these connections are made, or or less as it happens in real time (and\u00a0not the chronologically sanitized version of discovery that most research papers are).\u00a0So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hypervalency&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hypervalency","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"C4-symmetric pentavalent carbon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/c4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"authors":[{"term_id":2661,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"admin","display_name":"Henry Rzepa","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/897b6740f7f599bca7942cdf7d7914af5988937ae0e3869ab09aebb87f26a731?s=96&d=blank&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11246"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11276,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11246\/revisions\/11276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11246"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=11246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}