Predicting substituent effects on activation energy changes by static catalytic fields

Catalytic fields illustrate topology of the optimal charge distribution of a molecular environment reducing the activation energy for any process involving barrier crossing, like chemical reaction, bond rotation etc. Until now, this technique has been successfully applied to predict catalytic effects resulting from intermolecular interactions with individual water molecules constituting the first hydration shell, aminoacid mutations in enzymes or Si→Al substitutions in zeolites. In this contribution, hydrogen to fluorine (H→F) substitution effects for two model reactions have been examined indicating qualitative applicability of the catalytic field concept in the case of systems involving intramolecular interactions. Graphical abstract Hydrogen to fluorine (H→F) substitution effects on activation energy in [kcal/mol]