Secondary deuterium kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) associated withrestricted rotation about the C-Cbonds of ethylene, propene, and allyl radical substituted by H or Dwere calculated. Geometries and force constantsof ground states and transition states were obtained by
abinitio MCSCF calculations with the 6-31G* and/or6-311G**basis sets. The KIEs were then calculated from the partitionfunctions for the Bigeleisen equation. The"rotational"KIEs are predicted to be larger than typical secondary KIEs. Forsimple alkenes, predicted
kH/
kD values r
angefrom1.32-1.46 at 25
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
C to 1.15-1.25 at 275
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
C. Predictedvalues are compared with existing experimental results.Asa test of our prediction that high-temperature alkene isomerizationsshould display large KIEs, samples of
cis-stilbene and
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
,
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
'-dideuterio-
cis-stilbene were pyrolyzed;the measured KIE was a remarkable
kH/
kD2 = 1.47 ±0.13(
n) at 287
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
C.