• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 2009

The global minimum structures of the benzene-water, Bz-$H_2O$ and benzene-water cation complex, [Bz-$H_2O]^+$ have been investigated using ab initio and density functional theory(DFT) with very large basis sets. The highest levels of theory employed in this study are B3LYP/cc-pVQZ for geometry optimization and MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ//B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ for binding energy. The harmonic vibrational frequencies and IR intensities are also determined at the various levels of theory to confirm whether the structure of water complex is affected by the presence of benzene. The binding energies of Bz-$H_2O$ (N-1) structure are predicted to be 3.92 kcal/mol ($D_e$) and 3.11 kcal/mol ($D_0$) after the zero-point vibrational energy correction at the MP2/cc-pVQZ//B3LYP/cc-pVQZ level of theory. The binding energies of [Bz-$H_2O]^+$ (C-1) structure are predicted to be 9.06 kcal/mol for $D_e$ and 7.82 kcal/mol for $D_0$ at the same level of theory.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.228-236
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• 1993

The effect of ferric ion on the reaction of CH_3$MgI with benzylbromide was investigated by determining the product ratio between cross-coupling product, ethylbenzene (A) and homocoupling product, bibenzyl (B) in the presence of ferric ion. When CH_3$MgI prepared with pure magnesium was used, the ratio of A to B was 22 to 78 and with reagent grade magnesium, the ratio became 33 to 67 indicating that metallic impurities in magnesium affect the reaction mechanism to lead less homocoupling product, B. The ratio changes became significant when ferric chloride was added in the reaction mixture in catalytic amounts and the ratio of A to B reached to 80 to 20 at maximum. The reaction in the presence of ferric ion seems to follow mainly an ionic mechanism which involves iron-benzyl bromide ${\pi}$-complex formation. The complex formation is expected to be able to enhance ionic attack of CH_3$MgI on benzyl carbon to give more A.