The Stability of Arylpentazoles

The stability of phenylpentazole along with para-substituted and ortho,para-substituted arylpentazoles have been studied using high-level density functional theory (DFT). The decomposition of arylpentazoles to N2 and the corresponding azide is a first-order reaction, where the breaking of the N1−N2 bond is concomitant with cleavage of the N3−N4 bond. Calculations confirm that the stability of arylpentazoles increases with electron-donating groups and decreases with electron-withdrawing groups, in the para position, as found in experiments. The stabilizing effect of the electron-donating groups is shown to be due to a resonance interaction with the electron-withdrawing pentazole ring. Addition of solvation effects, using the polarizable continuum model to simulate the polar solvent methanol, increases the stability of arylpentazoles. This is due to a more polar ground state than transition state. The calculated free energies of activation for the arylpentazoles agree well with experimental results. From the calculations, the electron-withdrawing effect of the pentazole group is found to be similar to that of cyanide (−CN). Some new arylpentazoles with hydroxyl groups in the ortho position are proposed. These are predicted to be more stable than all previously synthesized neutral arylpentazoles.