Atmospheric reactions of glyoxal with NO2 and NH2 radicals: Hydrogen abstraction mechanism and natural bond orbital analysis

Glyoxal can be important in atmospheric chemistry in terms of its ability to convert to secondary organic aerosols. In this study, the glyoxal-breaking reaction by two atmospheric active radicals, NO2 and NH2, has been investigated at the B3LYP and M06-2X levels in connection with 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. The formation of the most stable adducts from glyoxal with NO2/NH2 radical requires two hydrogen atom transfers. The accuracy of the predicted mechanisms in describing the hydrogen transfers was confirmed by atoms-in-molecules calculations and natural bond orbital analysis. The calculated results predict that hydrogen transfer process in both reactions at the M06-2X level is favourable from the kinetic and thermodynamic points of view. In the natural bond orbital analysis, the stabilization energy, E(2), delocalization corrections, at the B3LYP level is much higher than the same results at the M06-2X level (nearly twice). The activation thermodynamic parameters show that the first steps of the two reactions have lower barrier energy than the second steps. The Gibbs free energy values estimate that adducts of both the reactions at the mentioned method are spontaneous. The whole reaction of glyoxal + NH2 is more favourable than the whole reaction of glyoxal + NO2. The rate constants were calculated for the mentioned pathways using transition state theory for bimolecular steps and the fitted equations are reported.