Atmospheric reaction of methyl mercaptan with hydroxyl radical as an acid rain primary agent

Abstract

For the CH3SH + OH atmospheric reaction, we study the mechanism, potential energy surface, thermodynamic parameters of all stationary points, and rate of generation of the main product channels at high, low, and intermediate pressures. In this study, the UMP2, UM062X, UB3LYP, and CCSD(T) methods by Dunning and Pople basis sets are used and the results are compared with the experimental data. It is theoretically predicted that the reaction has fourteen possible pathways with eight different products in the gas phase. The thermodynamic results show that OH radical extracts predominantly the hydrogen of the SH functional group compared to the hydrogen of the CH3 group of CH3SH. Also, the rate constant calculations indicate that the extraction of the hydrogen atom of the SH group has a major role in 150–3000 K, while a good contribution is observed for the hydrogen of methyl group above 1200 K. Our results show that the used methods lead to good agreement with experiment. Finally, we demonstrated that why the main path is the main path.