Mechanisms for the Reaction of Thiophene and Methylthiophene with Singlet and Triplet Molecular Oxygen

Mechanisms for the reaction of thiophene and 2-methylthiophene with molecular oxygen on both the triplet and singlet potential energy surfaces (PESs) have been investigated using ab initio methods. Geometries of various stationary points involved in the complex reaction routes are optimized at the MP2/6-311++G­(d, p) level. The barriers and energies of reaction for all product channels were refined using single-point calculations at the G4MP2 level of theory. For thiophene, CCSD­(T) single point energies were also determined for comparison with the G4MP2 energies. Thiophene and 2-methylthiophene were shown to react with O₂ via two types of mechanisms, namely, direct hydrogen abstraction and addition/elimination. The barriers for reaction with triplet oxygen are all significantly large (i.e., >30 kcal mol^–1), indicating that the direct oxidation of thiophene by ground state oxygen might be important only in high temperature processes. Reaction of thiophene with singlet oxygen via a 2 + 4 cycloaddition leading to endoperoxides is the most favorable channel. Moreover, it was found that alkylation of the thiophene ring (i.e., methyl-substituted thiophene) is capable of lowering the barrier height for the addition pathway. The implication of the current theoretical results may shed new light on the initiation mechanisms for combustion of asphaltenes