A combination of quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics QM/MM has been u
sed to study the capture of ethylene by Brookhart's Ni diimine catalysts of
the type (ArN=C(R')-C(R')=NAr)Ni-II-propyl(+) with (1) R' = H and Ar = H,
(2) R' = H and Ar = 2,6-C6H3(i-Pr)(2), or (3) R' = CH3 and Ar = 2,6-C6H3(i-
Pr)(2) The study made use of both conventional "static" density functional
theory (DFT) based calculations as well as slow growth first principle mole
cular dynamics (FPMD) DFT methods to examine the capture of ethylene. Exami
nation of the static potential energy surface of all. three catalyst models
1, 2, and 3 reveals that there is no enthalpic barrier to the capture proc
ess. However, both the static and molecular dynamics simulations suggest th
at there is an entropic barrier to the-association that originates from the
loss of rotational and translational entropies upon association. The;FPMD
QM/MM slow growth barriers were calculated to be 7.5, 10.3, and 10.8 kcal/m
ol at 300 K for catalysts 8, 2, and 3 , respectively. An analysis suggests
that the trend in the barriers can be related to the size of the; active si
te. The free energy barrier for the pure QM model of 1 has also been estima
ted from a series of frequency calculations. This approach provides a barri
er of 7.7 kcal/mol (and 6.8 kcal/mol without quantum dynamical contribution
s), which is in fair agreement with the 7.5 kcal/mol barrier (without quant
um dynamical contributions) calculated from the slow growth simulations. An
alysis of the estimate from the frequency calculations suggests that this b
arrier estimate represents an upper limit, since the components of the vibr
ational entropy that compensate the loss of rotational and translational en
tropy upon association are partially neglected in the treatment.