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(3 P), 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.