Infrared fingerprint and unimolecular decay dynamics of the hydroperoxyalkyl intermediate (•QOOH) in cyclopentane oxidation

A transient carbon-centered hydroperoxyalkyl intermediate (•QOOH) in the oxidation of cyclopentane is identified by IR action spectroscopy with time-resolved unimolecular decay to hydroxyl (OH) radical products that are detected by UV laser-induced fluorescence. Two nearly-degenerate •QOOH isomers, b- and g-QOOH, are generated by H-atom abstraction of the cyclopentyl hydroperoxide precursor. Fundamental and first overtone OH stretch transitions and combination bands of •QOOH are observed and compared with anharmonic frequencies computed by second-order vibrational perturbation theory. An OH stretch transition is also observed for a conformer arising from torsion about a low-energy CCOO barrier. Definitive identification of the b-QOOH isomer relies on its significantly lower transition state (TS) barrier to OH products, which results in rapid unimolecular decay and near unity branching to OH products. A benchmarking approach is utilized to compute high-accuracy stationary point energies, most importantly TS barriers, for cyclopentane oxidation (C5H9O2), building on higher level reference calculations for ethane oxidation (C2H5O2). The experimental OH product appearance rates are compared with computed statistical microcanonical rates, including heavy atom tunneling, thereby validating the computed TS barrier. The results are extended to thermal unimolecular decay rate constants at temperatures and pressures relevant to cyclopentane combustion via master-equation modeling. The various ring puckering states of the wells and transition states are explicitly considered in these calculations.