PNNL

Abstract

The bond energies of a range of gem-diols, CH3R'C(OH)2 (R' = H, F, Cl, Br, CN, NO2, CF3, CH3CH2, CH3CH2CH2, CH3CH2CH2CH2, ((CH3)2)CH, (CH3)3C, ((CH3)2CH)CH2, (CH3CH2)(CH3)CH, C6H5 (CH3CH2)(CH3)CH) which serve as models for binding to a surface have been studied with density functional theory (DFT) and the molecular orbital G3(MP2) methods to provide thermodynamic data for the analysis of the photochemistry of ketones on TiO2. The ultraviolet (UV) photon-induced photodecomposition of adsorbed acetone and 3,3-dimethylbutanone on the rutile TiO2 (110) surface have been investigated with photon stimulated desorption (PSD) and temperature programmed desorption (TPD). The C-CH3 and C-C(R') bond dissociation energies in CH3R'C(OH)2 were predicted, and our calculated bond dissociation energies are in excellent agreement with the available experimental values. We used a series of isodemic reactions to provide small corrections to the various bond dissociation energies. The calculated bond dissociation energies are in agreement with the observed photodissociation processes except for R' = CF3, suggesting that these processes are under thermodynamic control. For R' = CF3, reaction dynamics also play a role in determining the photodissociation mechanism. The gas phase Brönsted acidities of the gem-diols were calculated. For three molecules, R' = Cl, Br, and NO2, loss of a proton leads to the formation of a complex of acetic acid with the anion Cl-, Br-, and NO2-. The acidities of these three species are very high with the former two having acidities comparable to CF3SO3H. The ketones (R'RC(=O)) are weak Lewis acids except where addition of OH- leads to the dissociation of the complex to form an anion bonded to acetic acid, R' = NO2, Cl, and Br. The X-C bond dissociation energies for a number of X-CO2- species were calculated and these should be useful in correlating with photochemical reactivity studies.