Density Functional Theory and MP2 Calculations of the Transition States and Reaction Paths on Coupling Reaction of Methane through Plasma

The two possible reaction paths of producing ethane on coupling reaction of methane through plasma were theoretically investigated by B3LYP and MP2 methods with 6-311G* respectively and further compared with the previous results calculated from B3LYP/6-31G*. The new investigated results consistently confirmed the previous conclusion. And the influences of the calculation methods and basis sets on the calculated results were also dis-cussed.