LAUSR

AbstractIn respective water or ethanol polarizable continuum cavity environments, simultaneous aldol condensation was performed using density functional theory (DFT) computational method to model the synthesis of optically active (RS)-1,2,4-butanetriol trinitrate (BTTN). The results of reaction energy barrier analysis suggested feasible routes with lower activation energies to obtain either the (R)- or (S)-configuration product in ethanolic solution. In addition, local analysis of average inter-particulate distances of reaction species revealed that a stronger inter-particulate interaction accompanied a shorter average distance in the ethanol system. The stabilization effect also indicated that related syntheses would be able to proceed in ethanol. Furthermore, relative to the production of (R)-BTTN, a lower overall energy of 425.3 kJ/mol was required for the synthesis of (S)-BTTN. Through analysis of the effects of temperature on the reaction rates of individual parallel stages of (R)- and (S)-species synthesis, it was simple to adjust the reaction temperature accordingly to differentiate between relative rates in order to obtain a product of a specific configuration. Graphical abstractᅟ