Hydrolysis of Ketene Catalyzed by Formic Acid: Modification of Reaction Mechanism, Energetics, and Kinetics with Organic Acid Catalysis

The hydrolysis of ketene (H₂CCO) to form acetic acid involving two water molecules and also separately in the presence of one to two water molecules and formic acid (FA) was investigated. Our results show that, while the currently accepted indirect mechanism, involving addition of water across the carbonyl CO bond of ketene to form an ene–diol followed by tautomerization of the ene–diol to form acetic acid, is the preferred pathway when water alone is present, with formic acid as catalyst, addition of water across the ketene CC double bond to directly produce acetic acid becomes the kinetically favored pathway for temperatures below 400 K. We find not only that the overall barrier for ketene hydrolysis involving one water molecule and formic acid (H₂C₂O + H₂O + FA) is significantly lower than that involving two water molecules (H₂C₂O + 2H₂O) but also that FA is able to reduce the barrier height for the direct path, involving addition of water across the CC double bond, so that it is essentially identical with (6.4 kcal/mol) that for the indirect ene–diol formation path involving addition of water across the CO bond. For the case of ketene hydrolysis involving two water molecules and formic acid (H₂C₂O + 2H₂O + FA), the barrier for the direct addition of water across the CC double bond is reduced even further and is 2.5 kcal/mol <i>lower</i> relative to the ene–diol path involving addition of water across the CO bond. In fact, the hydrolysis barrier for the H₂C₂O + 2H₂O + FA reaction through the direct path is sufficiently low (2.5 kcal/mol) for it to be an energetically accessible pathway for acetic acid formation under atmospheric conditions. Given the structural similarity between acetic and formic acid, our results also have potential implications for aqueous-phase chemistry. Thus, in an aqueous environment, even in the absence of formic acid, though the initial mechanism for ketene hydrolysis is expected to involve addition of water across the carbonyl bond as is currently accepted, the production and accumulation of acetic acid will likely alter the preferred pathway to one involving addition of water across the ketene CC double bond as the reaction proceeds