cPCET versus HAT: A Direct Theoretical Method for Distinguishing X–H Bond-Activation Mechanisms

Proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) events play a key role in countless chemical transformations, but they come in many physical variants which are hard to distinguish experimentally. While present theoretical approaches to treat these events are mostly based on physical rate coefficient models of various complexity, it is now argued that it is both feasible and fruitful to directly analyze the electronic N-electron wavefunctions of these processes along their intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC). In particular, for model systems of lipoxygenase and the high-valent oxoiron(IV) intermediate TauD-J it is shown that by invoking the intrinsic bond orbital (IBO) representation of the wavefunction, the common boundary cases of hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) and concerted PCET (cPCET) can be directly and unambiguously distinguished in a straightforward manner.