Predicting pressure-dependent rate constants for the furan + OH reactions and their impact under tropospheric conditions

Abstract

In this work, we have evaluated the influence of temperature and pressure on the mechanism of furan oxidation by the OH radical. The stationary points on the potential energy surface were described at the M06-2X/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory. In the kinetic treatment at the high-pressure limit (HPL), we have combined the multistructural canonical variational theory with multidimensional small-curvature tunneling corrections and long-range transition state theory. The system-specific quantum Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel theory was employed to estimate the pressure-dependent rate. In the HPL, the OH addition on the α carbon is the dominant pathway in the mechanism, producing a product via the ring-opening process, also confirmed by the product branching ratio calculations. The overall rate constant, obtained by a kinetic Monte Carlo simulation, reads the form koverall=5.22×10−13T/3001.10⁡exp1247(K/T) and indicates that the furan oxidation by OH radicals is a pressure-independent reaction under tropospheric conditions.