IRC Reaction: Sn2 Walden inversion  (Home)

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  ===>    Although the reaction of F- with CH3Cl is not formally a Walden inversion in that the molecule is not optically active, it does illustrate the reaction path involved.

The reaction barrier starts with the activated complex, F- + CH3Cl, and goes uphill to the transition state, then descends to the lower minimum of the activated complex of Cl- + CH3F.

Data set used by MOPAC:

    charge=-1 irc=1* cycles=2000 X-priority=0.01 gnorm=0.0
Sn2 b
   
  C         0.00000000 +0    0.0000000 +0    0.0000000 +0                      0.0218
  H         1.08488568 +1    0.0000000 +0    0.0000000 +0    1    0    0       0.1458
  H         1.08494263 +1  116.7184757 +1    0.0000000 +0    1    2    0       0.1465
  H         1.08489033 +1  116.6709882 +1  144.7520831 +1    1    2    3       0.1460
  F         2.09355331 +1   79.5595964 +1  -72.5472306 +1    1    2    4      -0.9139
 Cl         1.98121456 +1  100.4060420 +1 -179.9968361 +1    1    2    5      -0.5461