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Computational studies on the mechanism and selectivity of Al8O12 nanocluster for different elimination reactions

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Abstract

Quantum mechanical investigations are performed to show the mechanism and selectivity of Al8O12 nanocluster during different competing elimination reactions of acyclic and cyclic compounds. The studies reveal that, the nanocluster can selectively eliminate hydrogen halide in presence of both hydroxyl and halide as leaving groups. Furthermore, for competing dehydrohalogenations, the chemoselectivity trend is just opposite to the leaving character of the halides, i.e., the fluoride is eliminated first. The regioselectivity of the nanocluster is also remarkable during elimination. Most importantly, the dehydrohalogenations proceed through a so called ’unfavorable’ syn-elimination pathway thereby producing stereospecified products which are difficult to be produced via normal base catalytic condition.

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Acknowledgments

The financial supports from CSIR (F. No. 01(6762)/17) and UGC (F. No. 43-174/2014 (SR)), New Delhi, Govt. of India are gratefully acknowledged. A.P. expresses his sincere gratitude to Dr. N.A. Begum and Dr. A. Hazra, Dept. of Chemistry, Visva-Bharati for sharing their experiences in synthetic Organic Chemistry. A.P. also acknowledges Dr. D.S. Kothari Postdoctoral Fellowship provided by UGC, New Delhi, Govt. of India.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, 731 235, India

    Santu Biswas, Anup Pramanik & Pranab Sarkar

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  1. Santu Biswas
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Biswas, S., Pramanik, A. & Sarkar, P. Computational studies on the mechanism and selectivity of Al8O12 nanocluster for different elimination reactions. Struct Chem 28, 1895–1906 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-017-0974-3

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