Equilibrating parent aminomercaptocarbene and CO2 with 2-amino-2-thioxoacetic acid via heavy-atom quantum tunneling

The search for methods to bind CO₂ and use it synthetically as a C₁-building block under mild conditions is an ongoing endeavor of great urgency. The formation of heterocyclic carbene-carbon dioxide adducts occurs rapidly when the carbene is generated in solution in the presence of CO₂. Here we demonstrate the reversible formation of a complex of the hitherto unreported aminomercaptocarbene (H₂N-C̈-SH) with CO₂ isolated in solid argon by photolysis of 2-amino-2-thioxoacetic acid. Remarkably, the complex disappears in the dark as deduced by time-dependent matrix infrared measurements, and equilibrates back to the covalently bound starting material. This kinetically excluded process below ca. 8 K is made possible through heavy-atom quantum mechanical tunneling, as also evident from density functional theory and ab initio computations at the CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ level of theory. Our results provide insight into CO₂ activation using a carbene and emphasize the role of quantum mechanical tunneling in organic processes, even involving heavy atoms.

The primary photo-dissociation dynamics of carboxylate anions in aqueous solution: decarboxylation

Photo-excitation of aqueous carboxylates results in decarboxylation.

PHOTOLYSIS OF POLYMETHACRYLIC ACID IN AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS

The photolysis of polymethacrylic acid was studied in aqueous solutions as a function of pH, polymer concentration, polymer chain length, and small additions of electrolytes in the absence of oxygen with light of wavelength 2537 Å. The random chain scission constants decrease with increasing pH values. Small variations in polymer chain length and concentration and electrolyte concentration have no effect on the photolysis. Changes in the ultraviolet spectra with irradiation time are more pronounced at low pH values than higher ones. It is shown that the decrease in susceptibility to photolysis with increasing degree of ionization of the acid is not proportional to the decrease or increase of the number of COOH or COO−groups respectively. It is rather due to the same causes—that is changes in ionic atmosphere— which make the polymer chains uncoil with increasing ionization.