Alkyl radicals nucleophilic character

Methyl free radicals, generated either by thermolysis of lead tetracetate in acetic acid solution (401) or by radical cleavage of dimethylsulfoxide by H2O2 and iron (II) salts (408), afford 2- and 5-methylthiazole in the proportion of 86 and 14%, respectively, in agreement with the nucleophilic character of alkyl free radicals and the positive charge of the 2-carbon atom of the thiazole (6). 

An interesting method for the substitution of a hydrogen atom in rr-electron deficient heterocycles was reported some years ago, in the possibility of homolytic aromatic displacement (74AHC(16)123). The nucleophilic character of radicals and the important role of polar factors in this type of substitution are the essentials for a successful reaction with six-membered nitrogen heterocycles in general. No paper has yet been published describing homolytic substitution reactions of pteridines with nucleophilic radicals such as alkyl, carbamoyl, a-oxyalkyl and a-A-alkyl radicals or with amino radical cations. 

Other limitations of the reaction are related to the regioselectivity of the aryl radical addition to double bond, which is mainly determined by steric and radical delocalization effects. Thus, methyl vinyl ketone gives the best results, and lower yields are observed when bulky substituents are present in the e-position of the alkene. However, the method represents complete positional selectivity because only the g-adduct radicals give reductive arylation products whereas the a-adduct radicals add to diazonium salts, because of the different nucleophilic character of the alkyl radical adduct. ... 

Simple alkyl radicals such as methyl are considered to be nonnucleophilic. Methyl radicals are somewhat more reactive toward alkenes bearing electron-withdrawing substituents than towards those with electron-releasing substituents. However, much of this effect can be attributed to the stabilizing effect that these substiments have on the product radical. There is a strong correlation of reaction rate with the overall exothermicity of the reaction. Hydroxymethyl and 2-hydroxy-2-propyl radicals show nucleophilic character. The hydroxymethyl radical shows a slightly enhanced reactivity toward acrylonitrile and acrolein, but a sharply decreased reactivity toward ethyl vinyl ether. Table 12.9 gives some of the reactivity data. 

On the basis of the reaction of alkyl radicals with a number of polycyclic aromatics, Szwarc and Binks calculated the relative selectivities of several radicals methyl, 1 (by definition) ethyl, 1.0 n-propyl, 1.0 trichloromethyl, 1.8. The relative reactivities of the three alkyl radicals toward aromatics therefore appears to be the same. On the other hand, quinoline (the only heterocyclic compound so far examined in reactions with alkyl radicals other than methyl) shows a steady increase in its reactivity toward methyl, ethyl, and n-propyl radicals. This would suggest that the nucleophilic character of the alkyl radicals increases in the order Me < Et < n-Pr, and that the selectivity of the radical as defined by Szwarc is not necessarily a measure of its polar character. 

The traditional means of assessment of the sensitivity of radical reactions to polar factors and establishing the electrophilicity or nucleophilieity of radicals is by way of a Hammett op correlation. Thus, the reactions of radicals with substituted styrene derivatives have been examined to demonstrate that simple alkyl radicals have nucleophilic character38,39 while haloalkyl radicals40 and oxygcn-ccntcrcd radicals " have electrophilic character (Tabic 1.4). It is anticipated that electron-withdrawing substituents (e.g. Cl, F, C02R, CN) will enhance overall reactivity towards nucleophilic radicals and reduce reactivity towards electrophilic radicals. Electron-donating substituents (alkyl) will have the opposite effect. 

In the absence of heteroatom containing substituents (e.g. halo-, cyano-), at or conjugated with the radical center, carbon-centered radicals have nucleophilic character. Thus, simple alkyl radicals generally show higher reactivity toward electron-deficient monomers (eg. acrylic monomers) than towards electron-rich monomers (e.g, VAc, S) - Table 3.6. 

This step is favored by the protonation of the base, owing to the nucleophilic character of the alkyl radical. 

A quite different reaction course was observed with benzoyl peroxide. The increase in the decomposition rate on going from nonprotonated to protonated quinoline is relatively small. The high decomposition rate of decanoyl peroxide in the presence of protonated heteroaromatic bases was mainly ascribed to the nucleophilic character of the alkyl radicals, which allows the complete capture of the nonyl radicals escaping from the solvent cage and the consequently rapid induced decomposition. The... 

Free radical substitution of pyridines usually occurs principally at position 2 (Table 25), which is in agreement with theoretical calculations (69CCC1110). 2-Substitution is more favored in methylation than in phenylation of pyridine. This suggests that the methyl has more nucleophilic character than the phenyl radical. Furthermore, methylation of pyridine in acidic solution gives 13-fold excess of 2- over 4-substitution, although the overall yield is low. Alkyl and aryl radicals have been generated from diverse sources (Table 25). 

The alkylation of quinoline by decanoyl peroxide in acetic acid has been studied kineti-cally, and a radical chain mechanism has been proposed (Scheme 207) (72T2415). Decomposition of decanoyl peroxide yields a nonyl radical (and carbon dioxide) that attacks the quinolinium ion. Quinolinium is activated (compared with quinoline) towards attack by the nonyl radical, which has nucleophilic character. Conversely, the protonated centre has an unfavorable effect upon the propagation step, but this might be reduced by the equilibrium shown in equation (167). A kinetic study revealed that the reaction is subject to crosstermination (equation 168). The increase in the rate of decomposition of benzoyl peroxide in the phenylation of the quinolinium ion compared with quinoline is much less than for alkylation. This observation is consistent with the phenyl having less nucleophilic character than the nonyl radical, and so it is less selective. Rearomatization of the cr-complex formed by radicals generated from sources other than peroxides may take place by oxidation by metals, disproportionation, induced decomposition or hydrogen abstraction by radical intermediates. When oxidation is difficult, dimerization can take place (equation 169). 

Rates of radical additions to alkenes are controlled mainly by the enthalpy of the reaction, which is the origin of regioselectivity in additions to unsymmetrical systems, with polar effects superimposed when there is a favorable match between the electrophilic or nucleophilic character of the radical and that of the radico-phile. For example, in the addition of an alkyl radical to methyl acrylate (2), the nucleophilic alkyl radical interacts favorably with the resonance structure 3. Polar effects are apparent in the representative rate constants shown in Figure 4.14 for additions of carbon radicals to terminal alkenes. Addition of the electron-deficient or electrophilic rert-butoxycarbonylmethyl radical to the electron-deficient molecule methyl acrylate is 10 times as fast as addition of... 

These and other homolytic alkylations of neutral heteroaromatics usually proceed in poor yields, but if protonated heteroaromatic bases are used, many of the side reactions are minimized and selectivity is high and yields are good. Selectivity is increased because the alkyl radicals are nucleophilic in character and thus selectively attack the a-position. 

In recent years, direct, time-resolved methods have been extensively employed to obtain absolute kinetic data for a wide variety of alkyl radical reactions in the liquid phase, and there is presently a considerable body of data available for alkene addition reactions of a wide variety of radical types [104]. For example, rates of alkene addition reactions of the nucleophilic ferf-butyl radical (with its high-lying SOMO) have been found to correlate with alkene electron affinities (EAs), which provide a measure of the alkene s LUMO energies [105,106]. The data indicate that the reactivity of such nucleophilic radicals is best understood as deriving from a dominant SOMO-LUMO interaction, leading to charge transfer interactions which stabilize the early transition state and lower both the enthalpic and entropic barriers to reaction, with consequent rate increase. A similar recent study of the methyl radical indicated that it also had nucleophilic character, but its nucleophilic behavior is weaker than that expressed by other alkyl radicals [107]. 

This reaction is based on the proposition that the sensitivity to polar effects in free-radical chemistry is the result of polarity and polarizability of both the radical and the substrate. This means that the polarity of the heteroaromatic base plays a key role in the process. Actually, the nucleophilic character of an alkyl radical, for example, is not so marked as to justify the addition to the N-heteroaromatic base, and in fact either no substitution occurs or low yields and selectivity are observed. 

Owing to the high electronegativity of fluorine atoms, perfluoroalkyl radicals show an electrophilic character moreover, these radicals are usually much more reactive than the nucleophilic alkyl radicals in the addition to alkenes, aromatic rings, and quinones for enthalpic reasons (Scheme 14.5b). 

Goldschmidt and Beer.372 The 2-alkylated product is the main one formed. This orientation is not unexpected since, compared with the phenyl radical, an alkyl radical should have some nucleophilic character. The j8-/y- ratio is also lower than in the phenylation, as expected for a more nucleophilic radical.371 Pyridine has a methyl affinity of 3 compared with benzene.373 This, however, does not represent the relative amount of picolines and toluene formed with acetyl peroxide.371... 

As mentioned before, alkyl radicals and acyl radicals have a nucleophilic character therefore, radical alkylation and acylation of aromatics shows the opposite reactivity and selectivity to polar alkylation and acylation with the Friedel-Crafts reaction. Thus, alkyl radicals and acyl radicals do not react with anisole, but may react with pyridine. Eq. 5.1 shows the reaction of an alkyl radical with y-picoline (1). The nucleophilic alkyl radical reacts at the 2-position of y-picoline (1), where electron density is lower than that of the 3-position. So, 2-alkyl-4-methylpyridine (2) is obtained with complete regioselectivity. When pyridine is used instead of y-picoline, a mixture of 2-alkylpyridine and 4-alkylpyridine is obtained. Generally, radical alkylation or radical acylation onto aromatics is not a radical chain reaction, since it is just a substitution reaction of a hydrogen atom of aromatics by an alkyl radical or an acyl radical through the addition-elimination reaction. Therefore, the intermediate adduct radical (a complex) must be rearomatized to form a product and a hydrogen atom (or H+ and e ). Thus, this type of reactions proceeds effectively under oxidative conditions [1-6]. 

Likewise, perfluorinated radicals react more rapidly with electron-rich aUcenes (X=H) than with electrophilic alkenes (X=F) in some intramolecular processes [124] (Figure 4.52). Similarly, rates of hydrogen abstraction by perfluoroalkyl radicals from a series of aromatic thiols were greatest from the most nucleophilic thiol [125] clearly, taken together, these data show that perfluoroalkyl radicals are highly electrophilic in character, in comparison with alkyl radicals, which are of course more nucleophilic. 

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