Effects of ring strain on gas‐phase rate constants. 3. NO3 radical reactions with cycloalkenes

Rate constants for the gas-phase reactions of NO3 radicals with a series of cycloalkenes have been determined at 298 ± 2 K, using a relative rate technique. Using an equilibrium constant for the NO2 + NO3 ⇄ N2O5 reactions of 3.4 × 10−11 cm3 molecule−1, the following rate constants (in units of 10−13 cm3 molecule−1 s−1) were obtained: cyclopentene, 4.52 ± 0.52; cycloheptene, 4.71 ± 0.56; bicyclo[2.2.1]-2-heptene, 2.41 ± 0.28; bicyclo[2.2.2]-2-octene, 1.41 ± 0.17; bicyclo[2.2.1]-2,5-heptadiene, 9.92 ± 1.13; and 1,3,5-cycloheptatriene, 12.6 ± 2.9. When combined with previous literature rate constants for cyclohexene and 1,4-cyclohexadiene, these data show that the rate constants for the nonconjugated cycloalkenes studied depend to a first approximation on the number of double bonds and the degree and configuration of substitution per double bond. No obvious effects of ring strain energy on these NO3 radical addition rate constants were observed. Our previous a priori predictive techniques for the alkenes and cycloalkenes can now be extended to strained cycloalkenes.