Additions of acids
to 1,3-dienes are conventionally understood
as involving discrete intermediates that undergo an ordinary competition
between subsequent pathways to form the observed products. The combined
experimental, computational, and dynamic trajectory study here suggests
that this view is incorrect, and that solvation dynamics plays a critical
role in the mechanism. While implicit solvent models were inadequate,
QM/QM′ trajectories in explicit solvent provide an accurate
prediction of the experimental selectivity in the addition of HCl
to 1,3-pentadiene. Trajectories initiated from a protonation saddle
point on the potential of mean force surface are predominantly unproductive
due to a gating effect of solvation that allows diene protonation
only when the incipient ion pair is neither too solvent-stabilized
nor too little. Protonation then leads to relatively unsolvated ion
pairs, and a majority of these collapse rapidly to the 1,2-product,
without barrier and without achieving equilibrium solvation as intermediates.
The remainder decay slowly, at a rate consistent with equilibrium
solvation as true intermediates, affording a mixture of addition products.
Overall, an accurate description of the nature and pathway selectivity
of the ion pair intermediates in carbocation reactions must allow
for species lacking equilibrium solvation. Potential reinterpretations
of a series of historically notable observations in carbocation reactions
are discussed.