Alkoxy radical, formation

Alkyl radicals, R, react very rapidly with O2 to form alkylperoxy radicals. H reacts to form the hydroperoxy radical HO2. Alkoxy radicals, RO, react with O2 to form HO2 and R CHO, where R contains one less carbon. This formation of an aldehyde from an alkoxy radical ultimately leads to the process of hydrocarbon chain shortening or clipping upon subsequent reaction of the aldehyde. This aldehyde can undergo photodecomposition forming R, H, and CO or, after OH attack, forming CH(0)00, the peroxyacyi radical. 

A possible mechanism for the formation of the furanones 6 and 7 is illustrated in Scheme 2. The initial alkoxy radical generated from the alcohol 5 and lead tetraacetate (LTA) undergoes /3-scission to produce the acyl radical intermediate 9. Subsequent cyclization to 10 proceeds through attack of the radical at the carbonyl oxygen. The resulting Pb(IV) intermediate 11 finally collapses via the reductive... 

Further oxidation of an alkoxy radical (RO ), via H-atom abstraction at the carbon adjacent to the oxygen s radical center, leads to the formation of an aldehyde. 

In sum, the results described have led us to postulate the following possible mechanism as explanation of the observed retardation of hydroperoxide formation by TMP derivatives The HALS studied form a complex with the hydroperoxides which is much more efficiently broken down by peroxy and/or alkoxy radicals - with formation of harmless products - than hydroperoxides alone (reaction (26)). The result is a lowering of the rate of formation of hydroperoxides. 

Epoxides can also be reductively opened to form a radical. An example of an intramolecular cyclization of such a radical has recently been reported <06TL7755>. Treatment of 40 with Cp2TiCl generates an intermediate alkoxy radical, which then adds to the carbonyl of the formate ester. The product, 41, is formed as a 2 1 mixture of isomers at the anomeric carbon. This reaction is one of the first examples of a radical addition to an ester. The major byproduct of this reaction is the exo-methylene compound, 42, arising from a P-hydrogen elimination. 

It should additionally be noted that a number of the paths of the schemes above have received some confirmation in a number of literature reports dealing with the photolysis and photo-oxidation of other polyesters [32-35], Because these reports investigated poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT), poly(ethylene naphthalate) and poly(butylene naphthalate), however, they may not have direct application to understanding of the processes involved in PET and PECT and so have not been discussed in this present chapter. All do contain support for the formation of radicals leading to CO and C02 evolution, as well as the hydrogen abstraction at glycolic carbons to form hydroperoxides which then decompose to form alkoxy radicals and the hydroxyl radical. These species then were postulated to undergo further reaction consistent with what we have proposed above. 

A recent report by Bartlett and Guaraldi (5) provides convincing evidence for the existence of the tetroxide as an intermediate in the selfreactions of ferf-butylperoxy radicals. They estimate AH for the formation of tetroxide by dimerization of peroxy radicals to be —6 kcal. per mole and AEact for decomposition of the tetroxide to alkoxy radicals and oxygen to be 11 kcal. per mole. 

For the /3-hydroxyalkoxy radicals formed from alkenes C5 and larger, there is experimental evidence that isomerization starts to dominate (e.g., see Atkinson et al., 1995d Kwok et al., 1996b). Thus, isomerization followed by reaction with 02, NO, etc., ultimately leads to the formation of dihydroxycarbonyl compounds. For the reaction of OH with 1-butene, for example, isomerization of one of the alkoxy radicals ultimately leads to 3,4-dihydroxybutanal in competition with its decomposition and reaction with 02 ... 

It was shown by Barton et al. that the photolysis of steroidal nitrites 50 proceeding by formation of alkoxy radicals could result in hydrogen abstrae-tion from suitably situated methyl groups forming earbon-centered radicals, which then reacted with the NO generated to give oximes (equation 79). This permitted the functionalization of the unaetivated centers. 

Recently, Kabasakalian et al.138-140 have reported the nitroso dimer formation in the photolysis of primary and secondary nitrites. Both this reaction and the Barton reaction16 are explained in terms of reactions of alkoxy radicals. 

The involvement of an intramolecular hydrogen abstraction in the Barton reaction is not necessarily limited to those molecules with rigid stereochemistry. In fact, simple aliphatic nitrites undergo the Barton reaction with equal ease. Thus, the principal product obtained from the photolysis of ra-octyl nitrite20 in benzene solution is the dimer of 4-nitroso-l-octanol however, photolysis of n-octyl nitrite in n-heptane20 produced a mixture of 7/-nitroso heptanes in addition to 4-nitroso-l-octanol in the ratio l 4.5,f respectively. The formation of y-nitroso heptane obviously results from an attack of the intermediate alkoxy radical on the solvent molecule. The intermediate alkyl radical then collapses, according to eq. 2. For the sake of convenience we have indi-... 

The crucial step in all of these photochemical reactions is, of course, the formation of alkoxy radicals. When molecular environments do not permit the Barton-type reaction to proceed in the usual fashion, the alkoxy radicals decompose by other available paths. For example, in a... 

Hypohalites IRO-Hal) are similar to nitrates (see p. 155 in their photochemical behaviour. Ultraviolet irradiation gives an (n,Ji > excited state that cleaves to form an alkoxy radical and a halogen atom. The radical may undergo alpha-cleavage before recombination with the halogen atom occurs, and this accounts for the formation of 5-iodopentanal (5.69) from the hypoiodite of cydopentanol such hypoiodites are generated in situ from the alcohol. Iodine and merturyfll oxide. In open-chain systems the alkoxy radical can... 

Tertiary peroxy radicals have no alpha hydrogen that can be abstracted by 02 in the second step. However, a unimolecular decomposition of the alkoxy radical results in the formation of a peroxy radical, which can be measured. 

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