0000000000230837
AUTHOR
I. Nebot
Molecular orbital studies on the mechanism of catalytic isomerization of xylenes III. Protonation channels
Abstract The isoenergetic lines of the interaction energy between a bare proton and ortho-, meta- , and para -xylene have been calculated in order to detect both the best approaching channel and the preferred protonation positions. The channels found direct the protonation to the following ring positions: 4 and 5 for o -xylene, 4 and 6 for m -xylene, and 2 equivalents for p -xylene. The overall interaction energy determines the protonation positions on each isomer and the most important contributions to it are the electrostatic term in o -xylene, the polarization term in p -xylene, and both terms equally in m -xylene. These results are in agreement with the experimental findings and appear …
A kinetic study of the cracking, isomerization, and disproportionation of n-heptane on a chromium-exchanged Y zeolite
The kinetic rate constants for the cracking, isomerization, and disproportionation of n-heptane over a CrHNaY (32% chromium exchanged) zeolite catalyst at 400, 450, and 470 °C have been calculated. The interaction of n-heptane with a model Lewis acid such as BF3 and progress along the reaction coordinate have been studied by means of molecular orbital calculations. From the kinetic results, i.e., activation energies and frequency factors, and the theoretical calculations, it can be concluded that the controlling step in these reactions is not the formation of the carbonium ion, but the subsequent transformation of this carbonium ion. In addition, the theoretical calculations show that the a…
Molecular orbital studies on the mechanism of catalytic isomerization of xylenes II. The photochemical process
Abstract The feasibility of an intermediate step in the mechanism of photochemical isomerization of xylenes in acidic media is explored by using CNDO molecular orbital methods. Along the reaction path from 2,6-dimethylbenzenium ion to dimethylbicyclo[3.1.0]hexenyl cation, the energy surfaces for this intermediate step have been drawn both for the first singlet S1 and triplet T1 excited states. The energies of these excited states have been calculated by adding to the ground-state energy calculated by CNDO/2 method the excitation energy calculated by CNDO/S-CI method. An optimization of the saddle point energy is achieved by introducing the angle between methyl groups and the ring plane as a…
On the mechanism of catalytic isomerization of xylenes. Molecular orbital studies
Abstract On the basis of CNDO/2 molecular orbital calculations, we postulate the following detailed mechanism for the catalytic isomerization of xylenes which explains the initial product distributions and also our previous finding that the reaction is intramolecular: (i) adsorption of xylene on a surface acid site to form a Wheland-type complex; (ii) disrotatory cyclization of the protonated species into a bicyclo[3, 1, 0]hexenyl complex; (iii) migration of the methylene bridge to a new side of the pentagonal ring; (iv) change of the new bicyclic species back into the corresponding Wheland-type complex; (v) desorption of the xylene isomer from the surface of the catalyst. The overall rate …