Alkoxy radicals secondary

Under moderate conditions, primary alkoxy radicals tend to undergo reaction 12 whereas secondary and tertiary alkoxys tend to undergo -scission. In general, the alkyl group that can form the lowest energy radical tends to become the departing radical. The -scission of secondary alkoxy radicals yields aldehydes as the nonradical products tertiary alkoxy radicals yield ketones. 

Dialkyl peroxydicarbonates have been reported as low temperature sources of alkoxy radicals (Scheme 3.30)lfMJfb and these radicals may be formed in relatively inert media. However, it is established, for primary and secondary peroxydicarbonates, that the rate of loss of carbon dioxide is slow compared to the rate of addition to most monomers or reaction with other substrates.186,187 Thus, in polymerizations carried out with diisopropyl peroxydicarbonate (47), chains will be initiated by isopropoxycarbonyloxy (48) rather than isopropoxy radicals (49) (see 3.4.2.2).188... 

Primary and secondary aikoxy radicals generally show a reduced tendency to abstract hydrogen or to undergo 3-scission when compared to the corresponding i-alkoxy radical.1"3 402 This has been correlated with the lesser nucleophilicity of these radicals.427... 

The rate constants for reaction of Bu3SnH with the primary a-alkoxy radical 24 and the secondary ce-alkoxy radical 29 are in reasonably good agreement. However, one would not expect the primary radical to react less rapidly than the secondary radical. The kinetic ESR method used to calibrate 24 involved a competition method wherein the cyclization reactions competed with diffusion-controlled radical termination reactions, and diffusional rate constants were determined to obtain the absolute rate constants for the clock reactions.88 The LFP calibrations of radical clocks... 

For the primary and secondary a-alkoxy radicals 24 and 29, the rate constants for reaction with Bu3SnH are about an order of magnitude smaller than those for reactions of the tin hydride with alkyl radicals, whereas for the secondary a-ester radical 30 and a-amide radicals 28 and 31, the tin hydride reaction rate constants are similar to those of alkyl radicals. Because the reductions in C-H BDE due to alkoxy, ester, and amide groups are comparable, the exothermicities of the H-atom transfer reactions will be similar for these types of radicals and cannot be the major factor resulting in the difference in rates. Alternatively, some polarization in the transition states for the H-atom transfer reactions would explain the kinetic results. The electron-rich tin hydride reacts more rapidly with the electron-deficient a-ester and a-amide radicals than with the electron-rich a-alkoxy radicals. 

Their rate coefficients were determined and showed that the primary alkoxy radicals have slightly higher rate coefficients for the reaction with O2 than the secondary... 

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. 

Several mechanisms have been suggested to produce the energy required to populate an excited carbonyl, which is at least 290-340 kj mol-1 [8]. Direct homolysis of hydroperoxides [9, 10], disproportion of alkoxy radicals [11] and /2-scission of alkoxy radicals [12] are all exothermic enough. However, the most widely accepted mechanism has been the highly exothermic (460 kj mol-1) bimolecular termination of primary or secondary alkyl per-oxyl radicals, i.e. the Russell mechanism (Scheme 2). It proceeds via an intermediate tetroxide to give an excited carbonyl, an alcohol, and oxygen [13, 14]. 

Polypropylene, in which tertiary radicals predominate, nevertheless gives CL. This has been an argument against the validity of the Russell mechanism, which requires at least one of the peroxy radicals to be primary or secondary. However, Mayo and co-workers [15, 16] showed that termination reactions are accompanied by production of alkoxy radicals that will cleave to... 

The reaction of alkoxy radicals, as the intermediates of hydrocarbon oxidation, with molecular oxygen takes place in the case of primary and secondary radicals... 

Photooxetane formation is quite inefficient, a fact which usually points to the presence of an intermediate which can partially revert to ground state reactants. Cleavage of the diradical must be responsible for some of the inefficiency in oxetane formation 129>. However, in the past few years convincing evidence has appeared that a CT complex precedes the diradical iso.isi). The two most telling pieces of evidence are the relative reactivities of different alkenes 130> and the absence of any measurable secondary deuterium isotope effect on quenching rate constants 131>. Relative quenching rates of sterically un crowded olefins are proportional both to the ionization potentials of the donor olefins 130> and to the reduction potentials of the acceptor ketones 131>, as would be expected for a CT process. Inasmuch as n,n triplets resemble electron-deficient alkoxy radicals, such substituent effects would also be expected on direct radical addition of triplet ketone to olefin. However, radical addition would yield an inverse isotope effect (in, say, 2-butene-2,3-d2) and would be faster to 1,1-dialkylethylenes than to 1,2-dialkylethylenes, in contrast to the actual observations. 

Attempts to attack the i4a-methyl group of lanosterol from a 9a-alkoxy-radical gave only a 9,io-seco-9-ketone [53], although the 7a-alkoxy radicai readily formed a cyclic ether with the I4a-methyl group [54]. Finally, a selection of secondary alkoxy-radicals derived from alcohols adjacent to quaternary centres e.g. la- or ij8-0H [55], 3j5-OH-4,4-dimethyl [56], 17/S-OH [36J, and 2i-OH-20-cyclic ketal [56]) gave fragmentation products which were either unsaturated carbonyl compounds, or acetoxy derivatives resulting from combination of alkyl and acetoxy radicals, e.g. ... 

The high oxidation rates of EPA and DHA and the instability of their hydroperoxides caused the rapid formation of secondary products such as volatile aldehydes and other compounds, which, in turn, impart flavor reversion in fish oils (56). The hydroperoxides produced from autoxidation of EPA (73) and DHA (74) have been identified but not quantified. They form eight and ten isomers, respectively. Noble and Nawar (75) analyzed the volatile compounds in autoxidized DHA and identified a number of aldehydes. Most of the aldehydes identified could be explained by the p-scission of alkoxy radicals generated by the homolytic cleavage of each isomer of the hydroperoxides as shown in Figure 9. 

In general, alkoxy radicals generated in cellulose are stable as compared to carbon radicals. The carbon radicals readily undergo secondary termination reactions. Carbon radicals in vacuo have an affinity for recombination and hydrogen abstraction to stabilize themselves in the presence of oxygen, and they are transformed rapidly into hydroperoxide radicals to build up hydroperoxide. This rapid oxygenation reaction is further accelerated when excited oxygen is presented (S3). 

This is not a termination reaction. It is one means of converting alkylperoxy radicals to alkoxy radicals. It is the dominant reaction when neither peroxy radical contains an a-hydrogen, but it even occurs to a significant extent (in one report about 40% of the time [17]) with peroxy radicals that do contain a-hydrogens. Alkoxy radicals are vigorous hydrogen abstractors [12]. This appears to be the main reaction for primary alkoxy radicals the products are primary alcohols. Secondary and tertiary alkoxys, however, tend to undergo a competitive 6-scission reaction to a major extent [18] ... 

Reaction (D) will for example provide one possible route to alcoholic groups, while an alternative reaction, 6-scission of a secondary alkoxy radical, will give aldehyde, reaction (H), which rapidly oxidizes further to peracid. 6 scission of a tertiary alkoxy radical result in ketones. Aldehydes and ketones may react further with peracid to give acid and ester groups. 

Secondary and tertiary alkoxy radicals prefer to form aldehydes, Reaction (4.11), and ketones, Reaction (4.12) ... 

The termination reaction proceeds through primary and secondary peroxy radicals according to Reaction (4.14), but at temperatures above 120°C these peroxy radicals also interact in a non-terminating way to give primary and secondary alkoxy radicals. Reaction (4.21) [6]. These radicals again contribute to the formation of cleavage products via Reactions (4.10) and (4.11) ... 

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