Anisole radical attack

To demonstrate the intervention of acetoxy radicals, an aromatic substrate (anisole or naphthalene) was added to the electrolyte and the reaction run under constant current conditions. The isolation of aryl acetates from this reaction was considered as evidence for the intermediacy of acetoxy radicals, the aryl acetate being formed via a homolytic attack of the acetoxy radical on the aromatic compound 4S"47). 

With anisole, the SOMO/HOMO interaction (B) is strong, and with nitrobenzene the SOMO/LUMO interaction (A) is strong, but with benzene neither is stronger than the other. Product development control can also explain this, since the radicals produced by attack on nitrobenzene and anisole will be more stabilised than that produced by attack on benzene. However, this cannot be the explanation for another trend which can be seen in Table 7.1, namely that a p-nitrophenyl radical reacts faster with anisole and benzene than it does with nitrobenzene. This is readily explained if the SOMO of the p-nitrophenyl radical is lower in energy than that of the phenyl radical, making the SOMO/HOMO interactions (C and D) strong with the former pair. 

Table 7.3 Regioselectivity in the attack of a range of radicals on anisole...

One trend seems clear, and it is a trend readily explained with frontier orbitals. In an X-substituted benzene, like toluene or anisole, the proportion of meta attack falls as the energy of the SOMO of the attacking radical rises (Table 5-5). 

Relative reactivity studies of homolytic substitution of monosubstituted benzene derivatives reveal that the 1-adamantyl radical has more pronounced nucleophilic properties than have other, more strained, bridgehead radicals. With benzo-nitrile 21.1) almost exclusive para-substitution is observed, whereas with anisole 0.65) the three possible sites are attacked almost equally. Kinetic studies on the reaction of adamantanethione with adamantane-2-thiol indicate that the rate-controlling chain-propagation step is hydrogen abstraction from the thiol (AdHSH) by the carbon-centred radical AdHSSAd-, and that the main mode of termination involves the diffusion-controlled bimolecular self-reaction of these radicals. ... 

The first thianthrene dication (32) has been isolated. Work on the thianthrene cation radical (33) continues. Its reaction with aliphatic amines yielded the sulphimides (34 X = NR) phenols and aromatic amines were attacked in the pflra-position to afford (34 X = / -HOCeH4 or p-R2NC H4), and enolizable ketones yielded the j8-keto-sulphonium salts (34 X = CHR COR ). The latter compounds reacted with nucleophiles Y to give the a-substituted ketones YCHR COR, and might prove to be useful intermediates for their synthesis. Reinvestigation of the kinetics of the reaction of (33) with phenol and with anisole has provided evidence which appears to disprove the disproportionation mechanism postulated earlier for these reactions. 

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