Resumen: Four alternative mechanisms for the benzenesulfonic acid + methanol esterification reaction have been studied at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ level. The participation of a pentacoordinate sulfur intermediate (in either neutral or protonated form) can be disregarded according to energy considerations. Instead, results show a low activation barrier for the SN1 pathway (through a sulfonylium cation intermediate) and a moderate barrier for the SN2 path (involving protonated methanol as an alkylating reagent). Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1039/c7ra09833b Año: 2018 Publicado en: RSC Advances 8, 7 (2018), 3828-3832 ISSN: 2046-2069 Factor impacto JCR: 3.049 (2018) Categ. JCR: CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY rank: 68 / 172 = 0.395 (2018) - Q2 - T2 Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.807 - Chemistry (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous) (Q1)