Alkyl radicals from alkanes

At 250° to 400°C. There is a serious gap in our information about alkane or alkyl radical oxidations between 150° and 250°C. Above about 250°C. the oxidations of organic substances and alkanes in particular become autocatalytic (42). The autocatalysis must arise from reactions such as 12, 12, and 13, and below 350°C. Reaction 12 seems by far the most likely. Around 400°C. Reaction 13 may become important and at... 

Thus, alkene backbones can be formed from alkyl radicals or also from unsaturated radicals. Similarly, a—co dialkene backbone species are produced from parent radicals of heavier alkenes and dialkenes. By using P, O and D respectively to indicate the whole amount of alkane, alkene and a—co dialkene backbone molecules, the resulting stoichiometry of the process is the following ... 

The mechanism of aerobic alkane photooxidation catalyzed by metal 0x0 complexes includes the formation of a photoexcited species which is capable of abstracting a hydrogen atom from an alkane. The alkyl radical thus formed rapidly adds a molecule of oxygen. An alkyl hydroperoxide is partially decomposed to produce a ketone and an alcohol ... 

Most organic free radicals have very short lifetimes, but certain structural features enhance stability. Radicals without special stabilization rapidly dimerize or disproportionate. The usual disproportionation process for alkyl radicals involves transfer of a hydrogen from the carbon P to the radical site, leading to formation of an alkane and an alkene ... 

Radicals of the alkanes are referred to as alkyl radicals. There are two other important radicals they are the vinyl radical, which is produced when a hydrogen atom is removed from ethylene, and the phenyl radical, which results when a... 

The anodic oxidation of the carboxylate anion 1 of a carboxylate salt to yield an alkane 3 is known as the Kolbe electrolytic synthesis By decarboxylation alkyl radicals 2 are formed, which subsequently can dimerize to an alkane. The initial step is the transfer of an electron from the carboxylate anion 1 to the anode. The carboxyl radical species 4 thus formed decomposes by loss of carbon dioxide. The resulting alkyl radical 2 dimerizes to give the alkane 3 " ... 

Recall from Section 5.3 that radical substitution reactions require three kinds of steps initiation, propagation, and termination. Once an initiation step has started the process by producing radicals, the reaction continues in a self-sustaining cycle. The cycle requires two repeating propagation steps in which a radical, the halogen, and the alkane yield alkyl halide product plus more radical to carry on the chain. The chain is occasionally terminated by the combination of two radicals. 

Alkanes are formed when the radical intermediate abstracts hydrogen from solvent faster than it is oxidized to the carbocation. This reductive step is promoted by good hydrogen donor solvents. It is also more prevalent for primary alkyl radicals because of the higher activation energy associated with formation of primary carbocations. The most favorable conditions for alkane formation involve photochemical decomposition of the carboxylic acid in chloroform, which is a relatively good hydrogen donor. 

R,5,R,5-[Ni(937)]+ reacts with a series of alkyl halides in aqueous alkaline solution to form alkylnickel(II) complexes of the type [RNi(937)]+. Kinetic data indicate that the reaction occurs in two steps, the first being a one-electron transfer from [Ni(937)]+ to RX (X = halide), yielding an alkyl radical R. The second step involves rapid capture of the alkyl radical by [Ni(937)]+.2324 [Ni(937)]+ has also been reacted with a number of variously disubstituted alkanes, including... 

It has been generally accepted that the thermal decomposition of paraffinic hydrocarbons proceeds via a free radical chain mechanism [2], In order to explain the different product distributions obtained in terms of experimental conditions (temperature, pressure), two mechanisms were proposed. The first one was by Kossiakoff and Rice [3], This R-K model comes from the studies of low molecular weight alkanes at high temperature (> 600 °C) and atmospheric pressure. In these conditions, the unimolecular reactions are favoured. The alkyl radicals undergo successive decomposition by [3-scission, the main primary products are methane, ethane and 1-alkenes [4], The second one was proposed by Fabuss, Smith and Satterfield [5]. It is adapted to low temperature (< 450 °C) but high pressure (> 100 bar). In this case, the bimolecular reactions are favoured (radical addition, hydrogen abstraction). Thus, an equimolar distribution ofn-alkanes and 1-alkenes is obtained. 

Cyclohexyl xanthate has been used as a model compound for mechanistic studies [43]. From laser flash photolysis experiments the absolute rate constant of the reaction with (TMS)3Si has been measured (see Table 4.3). From a competition experiment between cyclohexyl xanthate and -octyl bromide, xanthate was ca 2 times more reactive than the primary alkyl bromide instead of ca 50 as expected from the rate constants reported in Tables 4.1 and 4.3. This result suggests that the addition of silyl radical to thiocarbonyl moiety is reversible. The mechanism of xanthate reduction is depicted in Scheme 4.3 (TMS)3Si radicals, initially generated by small amounts of AIBN, attack the thiocarbonyl moiety to form in a reversible manner a radical intermediate that undergoes (3-scission to form alkyl radicals. Hydrogen abstraction from the silane gives the alkane and (TMS)3Si radical, thus completing the cycle of this chain reaction. 

Singlet NH inserts into the CH bonds of hydrocarbons, much like singlet methylene (see Chapter 7 in this volume). Triplet NH abstracts hydrogen atoms from hydrocarbons to form aminyl (NHp radicals and alkyl radicals in the same manner as triplet methylene, in spite of the fact that the reactions of CH2 are exothermic, whereas some reactions of NH are endothermic, depending on the alkane Absolute rate constants for many of these processes have been measured in the gas phase. However, the gas-phase chemistry of methylene is much more developed than that of imidogen. ... 

This technique was quickly adopted by others and it was soon found by F.O. Rice and co-workers that the pyrolysis of many organic compounds at 800 to 1000°C removed metallic mirrors, implicating the formation of free radicals. The cleavage of larger free radicals into smaller radicals and olefins under these conditions, was also proposed (equation 22), as well as chain reactions in which radicals abstract hydrogen from alkanes. Reactions of alkyl halides with metal atoms in the gas phase were also found by M. Polanyi and co-workers to yield alkyl radicals (equation 23). 

At low concentrations of chlorine, dimeric nitrosoalkanes free from chlorine are produced when alkanes are treated also with nitric oxide. Under these circumstances, molecular chlorine is first converted into atomic chlorine which attacks the alkane to form alkyl radicals and hydrogen chloride. The alkyl radicals, in turn, form nitrosoalkanes with nitric oxide. This reaction is most effectively carried out when the ultraviolet radiation is between 380 and 420 mp. [43, 56],... 

Alkyl Tire general name for a radical of an alkane an alkyl halide is a halogenated hydrocarbon whose hydrocarbon backbone originated from an alkane. 

I) At very high temperatures, an alkane molecule reacts on a catalyst to produce an alkyl radical, which desorbs from the surface to undergo homogeneous gas-phase reactions. 

Data on alkyl radical oxidation between 300° and 800°K. have been studied to establish which of the many elementary reactions proposed for systems containing alkyl radicals and oxygen remain valid when considered in a broad framework, and the rate constants of the most likely major reactions have been estimated. It now seems that olefin formation in autocatalytic oxidations at about 600°K. occurs largely by decomposition of peroxy radicals rather than by direct abstraction of H from an alkyl radical by oxygen. This unimolecular decomposition apparently competes with H abstraction by peroxy radicals and mutual reaction of peroxy radicals. The position regarding other peroxy radical isomerization and decomposition reactions remains obscured by the uncertain effects of reaction vessel surface in oxidations of higher alkanes at 500°-600°K. 

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