Electrostriction effects on competing transition states in supercritical fluoroform

A compressible continuum model for supercritical fluoroform is used to model enantiomeric selectivities measured experimentally by Jessop et al. While oversimplified models, which exaggerate the importance of the electrostriction effect, do produce a non-monotonic density-dependence similar to that observed experimentally, more realistic continuum calculations do not. From these more realistic calculations we conclude that although electrostriction can cause the high-density limit of such selectivities to be attained at much lower densities than would be expected in the absence of electrostriction, it would be very unlikely for this effect to generate a non-monotonic density dependence.