Intramolecular SN2 reaction caused by photoionization of benzene chloride-NH3 complex:: Direct ab initio molecular dynamics study

Ionization processes of chlorobenzene-ammonia 1:1 complex (PhCl-NH3) have been investigated by means of full dimensional direct ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) method, static ab initio calculations, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The static ab initio and DFT calculations of neutral PhCl-NH3 complex showed that one of the hydrogen atoms of NH3 orients toward a carbon atom in the para-position of PhCl. The dynamics calculation for ionization of PhCl-NH3 indicated that two reaction channels are competitive with each other as product channels: one is an intramolecular S(N)2 reaction expressed by a reaction scheme [PhCl-NH3](+) -> S(N)2 intermediate complex -> PhNH3+ + Cl, and the other is ortho-NH3 addition complex (ortho complex) in which NH3 attacks the ortho-carbon of PhCl+ and the trajectory leads to a bound complex expressed by (PhCl-NHS3)(+). The mechanism of the ionization of PhCl-NH3 is discussed on the basis of the theoretical results.