A DFT investigation of base-catalyzed β-elimination reactions in water solution for systems activated by the pyridine ring: Theory vs. experiment

We investigated the acetohydroxamate-induced β-elimination reaction in protonated N-[2-(2-pyridyl)ethyl]quinuclidinium, to test computational methodologies against kinetic experimental data. Except a discrepancy in the reproduction of the pKa of the acetohydroxamic acid, the calculated free-energy profile is in excellent agreement with the experiment, showing the general reliability of the present approach.