Theoretical study on the reaction of hydrogen atoms with aniline

The reaction of aniline with hydrogen atom is investigated herein using the hybrid meta-DFT functional of BB1 K. Hydrogen atom is found to preferentially add at an ortho position. However, the fate of the o-(C₆H₅NH₂)H adduct is found to be solely the deactivation of the initial addition channel. The rate constant for the abstraction channel (C₆H₅NH₂ + H → C₆H₅NH + H₂) is fitted by the expression 1.10 × 10^-11 exp(-4,200/T) cm³ molecule^-1 s^-1. Our calculated rate constant for the abstraction channel agrees very well with the available experimental measurements. Satisfactory agreement is found between calculated and experimental measurements for the displacement channel (C₆H₅NH₂ + H → C₆H₆ + NH₂). Our detailed analysis for the corresponding displacements in toluene and phenol suggests that the three systems exhibit similar behavior with regard to the relative importance of abstraction and displacement channels.