Theoretical study for OH radical-initiated atmospheric oxidation of ethyl acrylate

•Oxidation mechanism for EA with OH radicals was investigated for the first time.•Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel–Marcus theory was used to predict the rate constants.•k(EA+OH) = (1.71 × 10−12)exp(805.42/T) cm3 molecule−1 s−1.•The atmospheric lifetime determined by OH radicals is about 16.2 h.

OH radical-initiated atmospheric oxidation of ethyl acrylate (ethyl 2-propenoate, EA) has been investigated by performing density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Optimizations of the reactants, intermediates, transition states and products were carried out at the MPWB1K/6-31+G(d,p) level. Single-point energy calculations were performed at the MPWB1K/6-311+G(3df,2p) level of theory. The detailed oxidation mechanism was presented and discussed. The results show that the OH addition is more energetically favorable than the H abstraction. Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel–Marcus (RRKM) theory was used to predict the rate constants over the possible atmospheric temperature range of 180–370 K. The Arrhenius expression adequately describes the total rate constant: k(EA+OH) = (1.71 × 10−12)exp(805.42/T) cm3 molecule−1 s−1. At 298 K, the atmospheric lifetime of ethyl acrylate determined by OH radicals is about 16.2 h. In order to find out the effect of alkyl substitution on the reaction activity, rate constants for the reactions of methyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate and butyl acrylate with OH radicals were also discussed. Calculation results show that the reaction activity may increase with the increased electron-donating substitution for electrophilic addition reaction.