Theoretical Determination of Enthalpies of Formation of Benzyloxy, Benzylperoxy, Hydroxyphenyl Radicals and Related Species in the Reaction of Toluene with the Hydroxyl Radical

Reaction of toluene (T) with HO^● produces addition products and the benzyl radical (TR). TR can react with HO^● or O₂ to produce oxygenated species, for many of which there is no experimental information. We present here theoretically determined heats of formation (HFs) of 17 such species using non-isodesmic reactions of TR+O₂ and T+HO^●+O₂. For experimentally known HFs, we obtained a reasonable correlation between experimental and theoretical data for G4 (r2=0.999) and M06/cc-pVQZ (r2=0.997) results. Previously unknown HFs of other radicals (benzyloxy, spiro [1,2-dioxetane benzyl], hydroxyphenyl, and benzylperoxy) and closed shell species (salicylic alcohol, benzo[b]oxetane and p-hydroxy cyclohexa-2,5-dienone) were calculated using these methods. The species studied and the enthalpies of formation obtained were: salycilic alcohol, -69.7 ± 3.4 kcal/mol; benzyloxy radical, 28.4 ± 3.4 kcal/mol; hydroxyphenyl radical, 37.3 ± 3.4 kcal/mol; benzo[b]oxetane, 23.7 ± 3.4 kcal/mol; spiro [1,2-oxoetane phenyl] radical, 57.3 ± 3.4 kcal/mol; p-hydroxy cyclohexan-2,5-dienone, -42.1 ± 3.4 kcal/mol; and benzylperoxy radical, 28.5 ± 3.2 kcal/mol.