Theoretical investigation of mechanisms for the gas-phase unimolecular decomposition of DMMP.

All species involved in the multichannel decomposition of gas-phase dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) were investigated by electronic structure calculations. Geometries for stationary structures along the reaction paths, were fully optimized with the MP2 method and the B3LYP and MPW1K DFT functionals, and the 6-31G*, 6-31++G**, and aug-cc-pVDZ basis sets. The geometries determined by the B3LYP and MPW1K functionals are in very good agreement with the MP2 values. Increasing the basis set size from 6-31G* to aug-cc-pVDZ does not significantly alter this result. Single point energy calculations were carried out with highly accurate but computationally more expensive CBS-QB3 theory. DMMP has three conformers, which lead to the four primary product channels, (O)P(CH(2))(OCH(3)) + CH(3)OH, (O)P(CH(3)) (OCH(3))(OH) + CH(2), c-(O)P(CH(3))OCH(2) + CH(3)OH, and (O)P(CH(3))(OCH(3))(OCH) + H(2). The first channel has the lowest energy barrier and is expected to be the most important pathway. It occurs via C-H and P-O bond cleavages accompanied by O-H bond formation. The other three channels have higher and similar energy barriers, and are expected to have smaller and similar rates. The product (O)P(CH(3))(OCH(3))(OCH) undergoes a secondary decomposition to form (OH)P(CH(3))(OCH(3)) + CO.