Acrylonitrile radical anion, detection

Zhou F and Bard A J 1994 Detection of the electrohydrodimerization intermediate acrylonitrile radical-anion by scanning electrochemical microscopy J. Am. Chem. See. 116 393... 

The most powerful illustration to date of the ability of steady-state TG/SC measurements to identify short-lived intermediates in electrode processes comes from studies in which the radical anion of acrylonitrile (AN) was detected in the electrohydrodimerization reaction (8). Prior to these investigations, the mechanism of the AN electrohydrodimerization process was unclear. On the basis of SECM measurements, it was shown that the reaction proceeded analogously to other activated olefins, including those highlighted in Sec. III.B. Electrogeneration of the radical anion, R , is followed by dimerization and then protonation to yield the hydrodimer ... 

Detection indirectly from the nature of the final large-scale electrolysis products [8-10] or by the use of free-radical acceptors, such as unsaturated compounds (styrene, 1,3-butadiene, acrylonitrile, etc.) for example, which readily enter into reaction with the radicals [7] this also applies to the observation by Bezuglyi and Ponomarev that radical anions formed during electrolysis of acrylic and methacrylic acids can act as initiators of polymerization of the original monomeric depolarizers, which was discovered from the suppression of polarographic maxima [11] ... 

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