Free Energies for Degradation Reactions of 1,2,3-Trichloropropane from ab Initio Electronic Structure Theory

Electronic structure methods were used to calculate the gas and aqueous phase reaction energies for reductive dechlorination (i.e., hydrogenolysis), reductive β-elimination, dehydrochlorination, and nucleophilic substitution by OH− of 1,2,3-trichloropropane. The thermochemical properties ΔH(f)°(298.15 K), S°(298.15 K, 1 bar), and ΔG(S)(298.15 K, 1 bar) were calculated by using ab initio electronic structure calculations, isodesmic reactions schemes, gas-phase entropy estimates, and continuum solvation models for 1,2,3-trichloropropane and several likely degradation products: CH3−CHCl−CH2Cl, CH2Cl−CH2−CH2Cl, C•H2−CHCl−CH2Cl, CH2Cl−C•H−CH2Cl, CH2═CCl−CH2Cl, cis-CHCl═CH−CH2Cl, trans-CHCl═CH−CH2Cl, CH2═CH−CH2Cl, CH2Cl−CHCl−CH2OH, CH2Cl−CHOH−CH2Cl, CH2═CCl−CH2OH, CH2═COH−CH2Cl, cis-CHOH═CH−CH2Cl, trans-CHOH═CH−CH2Cl, CH(═O)−CH2−CH2Cl, and CH3−C(═O)−CH2Cl. On the basis of these thermochemical estimates, together with a Fe(II)/Fe(III) chemical equilibrium model for natural reducing environments, all of the reactions studied were predicted to be very favorable in the standard state and under a wide range of pH conditions. The most favorable reaction was reductive β-elimination (ΔG(rxn)° ≈ −32 kcal/mol), followed closely by reductive dechlorination (ΔG(rxn)° ≈ −27 kcal/mol), dehydrochlorination (ΔG(rxn)° ≈ −27 kcal/mol), and nucleophilic substitution by OH− (ΔG(rxn)° ≈ −25 kcal/mol). For both reduction reactions studied, it was found that the first electron-transfer step, yielding the intermediate C•H2−CHCl−CH2Cl and the CH2Cl−C•H−CH2Cl species, was not favorable in the standard state (ΔG(rxn)° ≈ +15 kcal/mol) and was predicted to occur only at relatively high pH values. This result suggests that reduction by natural attenuation is unlikely.