Computational study of the dissociation reactions of secondary ozonide

This contribution presents a comprehensive computational study on the reactions of secondary ozonide (SOZ) with ammonia and water molecules. The mechanisms were studied in both a vacuum and the aqueous medium. All the molecular geometries were optimized using the B3LYP functional in conjunction with several basis sets. M06-2X, APFD, and ωB97XD functionals with the full basis set were also used. In addition, single-point energy calculations were performed with the G4MP2 and G3MP2 methods. Five different mechanistic pathways were studied for the reaction of SOZ with ammonia and water molecules. The most plausible mechanism for the reaction of SOZ with ammonia yields HC(O)OH, NH₃, and HCHO as products, with ammonia herein acting as a mediator. This pathway is exothermic and exergonic, with an overall barrier height of only 157 kJ mol⁻¹ using the G3MP2 method. All the reaction pathways between SOZ and water molecules are endothermic and endergonic reactions. The most likely reaction pathway for the reaction of SOZ with water involves a water dimer, in which the second water molecule acts as a mediator, with an overall barrier height of only 135 kJ mol⁻¹ using the G3MP2 method. Solvent effects were found to incur a significant reduction in activation energies. When the second H₂O molecule acts as a mediator in the reaction of SOZ with water, the barrier height of the rate-determining step state decreases significantly.