Systematic computational study on the unimolecular reactions of alkylperoxy (RO2), hydroperoxyalkyl (QOOH), and hydroperoxyalkylperoxy (O2QOOH) radicals.

Unimolecular isomerization and decomposition reactions of alkylperoxy (RO(2)), hydroperoxyalkyl (QOOH), and hydroperoxyalkylperoxy (O(2)QOOH) radicals play important roles in the low-temperature oxidation of hydrocarbons. In this study, these reactions have been investigated by the CBS-QB3 quantum chemical method, and the variation of the rate parameters by the structural change of alkyl groups has been studied systematically for the rule-based construction of the low-temperature oxidation mechanisms of arbitrary noncyclic alkanes. The results can be well-interpreted in terms of the group additivity and the ring-strain effect of the cyclic transition states. To extract the important processes needed for the chemical kinetic modeling, the competing reaction channels were compared in detail by steady-state analysis with the high-pressure limiting rate constants. The importance of some reactions of O(2)QOOH radicals, which have not been considered in the previous modeling studies, such as the hydrogen exchange reactions between -OOH and -OO(•) groups and hydrogen shift reactions from non-OOH sites, is suggested.