Theoretical and Shock Tube Study of the Rate Constants for Hydrogen Abstraction Reactions of Ethyl Formate.

We report a systematic chemical kinetics study of the H atom abstractions from ethyl formate (EF) by H, O(3P), CH3, OH, and HO2 radicals. The geometry optimization and frequency calculation of all the species were conducted using the M06 method and the cc-pVTZ basis set. The one-dimensional hindered rotor treatment of the reactants and transition states and the intrinsic reaction coordinate analysis were also performed at the M06/cc-pVTZ level of theory. The relative electronic energies were calculated at the CCSD(T)/cc-pVXZ (where X = D, T) level of theory and further extrapolated to the complete basis set limit. Rate constants for the tittle reactions were calculated over the temperature range 500-2500 K by the transition state theory (TST) in conjunction with the asymmetric Eckart tunneling effect. In addition, the rate constants of H-abstraction by hydroxyl radical were measured in shock tube experiments at 900-1321 K and 1.4-2.0 atm. Our theoretical rate constants of OH + EF → products agree well with the experimental results within 15% over the experimental temperature range of 900-1321 K. Branching ratios for the five types of H-abstraction reactions were also determined from their individual site-specific rate constants.