Abstract
The hydrogen atom transfer reaction between substituted methane, $CH_3X,$ and its radical, $CH_2X(X=H,F,CH_3,CN,OH\;and\;NH_2$ was studied by MINDO/3 method. The transition state(TS) structure and energy barriers were determined and variation of the transition state and of the reactivity due to the change of X were analyzed based on the potential energy surface characteristics. It was found that the greater the radical stabilization energy. the looser the TS becomes; the TS occurs at about 15% stretch of the C-H bond, which becomes longer as the radical stabilization energy of $CH_2X$ increasers. The intrinsic barrier, ${\Delta}E*_{x.x},$ of the reaction with X was found to increase in the order $H The degree of bond stretch of the C-H bond stretch of the C-H bond at the TS also had the same order indicating that the homolytic bond cleavage of the C-H bond is rate-determining. Orbital interactions at the TS between LUMO of the fragment $C{\ldots}H{\ldots}C$ and the symmetry adapted pair of nonbonding, $n{\pm}(=n_1{\pm}n_2),$ or pi orbitals of the two X atoms were shown to be the dominant contribution in determining tightness or looseness of the TS. The Marcus equation was shown to apply to the MINDO/3 barriers and energy changes of the reaction.