Alkanes organic radical ions

The Jovian moon, lo, shows an orange hue (Fig. 6.1), which may be due to long-chain alkane radical cations. The atmosphere of lo consists mostly of methane deep UV photolysis proceeds with electron ejection thus, the molecular ion of methane was perhaps the earliest organic radical cation, generated by solar irradiation aeons ago. 

EPR experiments have shown that the redox ability of WZ catalysts is sufficient to initiate a homolytic cleavage of C-H bonds in alkanes. Exposure of a WZ catalyst to n-pentane at 523 K led to the formation of W5+ species and organic radicals on the surface.27 The formation of organic radicals also occurred when WZ catalysts interacted with other hydrocarbons, including benzene.31 We therefore infer that one-electron transfer, although it is not regarded as a step in the catalytic cycle, can initiate catalysis by a process that leads to the formation of the carbenium ion chain carriers,27 as also occurs in acidic solutions.32 We emphasize that a strong redox reactivity is necessary but not sufficient for the catalytic activity of WZ. 

Since during the Purex process TBP, alkane, and aqueous nitric acid solution are in mixture or contact condition, the radiation chemical transformations depend on the composition, concentration of nitric acid, contaminant metal ions, irradiation conditions, and oxygen concentration (Triphathi and Ramanujam 2003 Katsumura 2004). Under aerated condition, the organic radicals react with oxygen forming peroxy radicals. After successive reactions a variety of alcohols, ketones, peroxides, and carbonyl compounds form. The ratio of nitration products to oxidation products is 0.8, and the ratio increases if there is no sufficient supply of O2. 

It is well-known that many organic excited states (e.g. the triplet state of benzophenone) can effectively abstract hydrogen atoms from organic compounds such as alkanes and alcohols. This behaviour is not commonly found for metal-containing compounds - a notable exception being the lowest excited state of uranyl ion which abstracts H atoms from alcohols, sugars etc., with the resultant formation of free radicals and U(V) compounds. Recent work has shown that it is very effective in inducing strand breaks in DNA (see Sect. 8). 

Electro-organic chemistry is the study of the oxidation and reduction of organic molecules and ions, dissolved in a suitable solvent, at an anode and cathode respectively in an electrolysis cell, and the subsequent reactions of the species so formed. The first experiment of this type was reported in 1849 by Kolbe, who described the electrolysis of an aqueous solution of a carboxylate salt and the isolation of a hydrocarbon. The initial step involves an anodic oxidation of the carboxylate anion to a radical which then dimerises to the alkane. 

CH Activation is sometimes used rather too loosely to cover a wide variety of situations in which CH bonds are broken. As Sames has most recently pointed out, the term was first adopted to make a distinction between organic reactions in which CH bonds are broken by classical mechanistic pathways, and the class of reactions involving transition metals that avoid these pathways and their consequences in terms of reaction selectivity. For example, radicals such as RO- and -OH readily abstract an H atom from alkanes, RH, to give the alkyl radical R. Also in this class, are some of the metal catalyzed oxidations, such as the Gif reaction and Fenton chemistry see Oxidation Catalysis by Transition Metal Complexes). Since this reaction tends to occur at the weakest CH bond, the most highly substituted R tends to be formed, for example, iPr-and not nPn from propane. Likewise, electrophilic reagents such as superacids see Superacid), readily abstract a H ion from an alkane. The selectivity is even more strongly in favor of the more substituted carbonium ion product such as iPr+ and not nPr+ from propane. The result is that in any subsequent fimctionalization, the branched product is obtained, for example, iPrX and not nPrX (Scheme 1). 

The employment of suitable organic solvents, such as acetonitrile and acetic acid, with oxidation-resistant supporting electrolytes permits the anodic formation of reactive radical cations from many organic materials. Most aromatic compounds and olefins, as well as those alkanes which have particularly weak C—H bonds, are oxidised in acetonitrile containing fluoroborate or hexafluorophosphate electro-lytes. °" 2 Some aromatic radical cations can be further oxidised to dications within the available potential range. Radical cations in general either deprotonate or attack nucleophiles present in the medium reactions with pyridine, methanol, water, cyanide ion, acetate ion or acetonitrile itself produce addition or substitution products. The complete reactions involve a second electron transfer and coupled chemical... 

An interesting instmmental development has been described by Hanson et al. [184], who demonstrated the ability of PTR-MS to detect peroxy radicals. These radicals were produced in a laminar flow reactor via an initial reaction of atomic chlorine with an alkane to produce an alkyl radical, which was followed by reaction with O2 to generate the peroxy radical. The PTR-MS instrument was operated under extremely low E/Nconditions (18-34 Td), which ensured that H30+(H20) cluster ions (n > 0) dominated rather than bare H3O+ reagent ions, because alkanes do not react with protonated water clusters. The detection of methyl and ethyl peroxy radical species was found to be adversely affected by water vapour, whereas that for the cylcohexyl peroxy radical was found to be much less affected. A particularly powerful feature of this work was the ability to map the formation of product distributions in organic reaction systems involving peroxy radicals. 

---