• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.337-345
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• 2002

The equilibrium structures for the ground and transition states of $C_7H_7^+$ isomers have been investigated using sophisticated ab initio quantum mechanical techniques with various basis sets. The structures of tropyrium and benzyl cations have been fully optimized at the DZP CCSD(T) levels of theory. And the structures of o-, m-and p-tolyl cations are optimized fully up to the DZ CCSD(T) levels of theory. The geometries for the transition states between three isomers of tolyl cations have been optimized up to DZP CISD level of theory. The SCF harmonic vibrational frequencies for tropylium, benzyl, and three isomers of tolyl cations are all real numbers, which confirm the potential minima and each unique imaginary vibrational frequencies for TS1 and TS2 confirm the true transition states. The relative energy of the benzyl cation with respect to the tropyrium cation is predicted to be 28.5 kJ/mol and is in good agreement with the previous theoretical predictions. The 0 K heats of formation, ${\Delta}H^{\circ}_{f0}$, have been predicted to be 890, 1095, 1101, and 1110 kJ/mol for tropylium, ortho-, meta-, and para-tolyl cations by taking the experimental value of 919 kJ/mol for the benzyl cation as the base level. The relative stability between tolyl cations is in the order of ortho

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.267-270
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• 2002

Photodissociations of o-, m-, and p-iodotoluene radical cations were investigated by using Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) spectrometry. Iodotoluene radical cations were prepared in an ICR cell by a photoionization charge-transfer method. The time-resolved one-photon dissociation spectra were obtained at 532 nm and the identities of $C_7H_7^+$ products were determined by examining their bimolecular reactivities toward toluene-$d_8$. The two-photon dissociation spectra were also recorded in the wavelength range 615-670 nm. The laser power dependence, the temporal variation, and the identities of $C_7H_7^+$ were examined at 640 nm. The mechanism of unimolecular dissociation of iodotoluene radical cations is elucidated: the lowest barrier rearrangement channel leads exclusively to the formation of the benzyl cation, whereas the direct C-I cleavage channel yields the tolyl cations that rearrange to both benzyl and tropylium cations with dissimilar branching ratios among o-, m-, and p-isomers. With a two-photon energy of 3.87 eV at 640 nm, the direct C-I cleavage channel results in the product branching ratio, [tropylium cation]/[benzyl cation], in descending order, 0.16 for meta >0.09 for ortho >0.05 for para.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.247-254
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• 2005

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.833-838
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• 2014

The energy- and time-dependent branching to the competing dissociation paths are studied by theory for coupled unimolecular dissociations of the o-, m-, and p-chlorotoluene radical cations to $C_7{H_7}^+$ (benzylium and tropylium). There are four different paths to $C_7{H_7}^+$, three to the benzylium ion and one to the tropylium ion, and all of them are coupled together. The branching to the multiple paths leads to the multiexponential decay of reactant with the branching ratio depending on both internal energy and time. To gain insights into the multipath branching, we study the detailed kinetics as a function of time and internal energy on the basis of ab inito/RRKM calculations. The number of reaction steps to $C_7{H_7}^+$ is counted for each path. Of the three isomers, the meta mostly goes through the coupling, whereas the para proceeds with little or no coupling. In the beginning, some reactants with high internal energy decay fast to the benzylium ion without any coupling and others rearrange to the other isomers. Later on all three isomers dissociate to the products via long-lived intermediates. Thus, the reactant shows a multiexponential decay and the branching ratio varies with time as the average internal energy decreases with time. The reciprocal of the effective lifetime is taken as the rate constant. The resulting rate-energy curves are in line with experiments. The present results suggest that the coupling between the stable isomers is thermodynamically controlled, whereas the branching to the product is kinetically controlled.