Kinetics and mechanism of intramolecular aldol condensation of 2,5-hexadione, a DFT and MP2 study

A theoretical study of kinetics and mechanism of intramolecular aldol condensation of 2,5-hexadione was performed using DFT methods at B3LYP and MP2 levels of theory using 6-311g, 6-311g*, 6-311G**, 6-311++G and 6-311++G** basis sets. Equilibrium molecular geometries and harmonic vibrational frequencies of the reactant, transition states, and products were calculated. Two reaction paths were studied. The considered rate constants and activation thermodynamic parameters were calculated. The results indicated a fairly good agreement with experimental data. It was demonstrated that the five member ring is the most stable one for all calculations. These calculations showed that the reaction proceeds through an asynchronous concerted mechanism.