A theoretical study of chemical reactivity of tartrazine through DFT reactivity descriptors

Abstract

In this work we have calculated global and local DFT reactivity descriptors for tartrazine at B3LYP/6-311++G (2d,2p) level. Global reactivity descriptors such as ionization energy, molecular hardness, electrophilicity, and total energies were calculated to evaluate the tartrazine reactivity in aqueous and gas conditions. Local reactivity was evaluated through the Fukui function. The influence of the solvent was taken into account with the PCM model. The results indicate that the solvation process modifies the reactivity descriptors values. From our results, it was found that an electrophilic attack allows a direct cleavage of the N=N bond. If a nucleophilic attack is considered as initial attack, it is necessary a second attack by free radicals or electrophiles to cleave the N=N bond. In the case of an initial attack by free radicals, tartrazine requires a subsequent nucleophilic attack to cleave the N=N bond.