Arenes, oxidation radical-cations

Amongst the radiolysis products of dichloromethane is the highly oxidizing radical cation CH2Cl2 [30]. Examples of its use in studies of electron transfer reactions are the oxidation of the fullerenes Ceo [18], 75, and C78 to the corresponding fullerene radical cations Cn , and also arenes to (arene) + [30]. By measurement of the rates of the reaction in Eq. 41 for several different (arene) +, clear evidence was obtained for the Marcus inverted region (see below) from a plot of log k vs... 

McCleland has reported that 3-phenylpropan-l-ol [125] and 3-(p-methyl-phenyl)propan-l-ol 99 [126] cyclize to chromans when oxidized by the radical anion SO4, generated by redox decomposition of S20 with Fe. The intermediate arene radical cation 100 is attacked by the nucleophilic hydroxy group. Whereas 1,6-cyclization yields 7-methylchroman 102, 1,5-cyclization with subsequent C-migration leads to the regioisomer 6-methylchroman 105. A dependence of the isomeric ratio and the combined yields to the pH value is determined. While 7-methylchroman 102 is the main product over a wide pH range, 6-methylchroman 105 is only formed at low pH. When the pH is lowered, the combined yields decrease due to the formation of an a-oxidized non-cyclized product. 

As with arene-amine radical ion pairs, the ion pairs formed between ketones and amines can also suffer a-deprotona-tion. When triplet benzophenone is intercepted by amino acids, the aminium cation radical can be detected at acidic pH, but only the radical formed by aminium deprotonation is detectable in base (178). In the interaction of thioxanthone with trialky lamines, the triplet quenching rate constant correlates with amine oxidation potential, implicating rate determining radical ion pair formation which can also be observed spectroscopically. That the efficiency of electron exchange controls the overall reaction efficiency is consistent with the absence of an appreciable isotope effect when t-butylamine is used as an electron donor (179). 

Nuclear597 or side-chain588,598 acetoxylation of arenes can be performed with good yields by persulfate and copper(II) salts in acetic acid (equations 268 and 269). As previously shown for cyclohexene (equation 263), persulfate oxidizes the aromatic ring to a radical cation which loses a proton to give a carbon radical, which is further oxidized by copper(II) acetate to the final acetoxylated product. 

Bis(trifluoroacetoxy)iodo]benzene (14, BTIB) can be utilized in hexafluoro-2-propanol for the installation of nucleophiles at the ortho-position of para-sub-stituted alkoxyarenes [59-63]. Such reactions have been employed for the construction of carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom (N,0,S) bonds, trimethylsi-lyl compounds serving as useful progenitors of the heteroatom nucleophiles (Scheme 20). Oxidative substitutions of this type appear to proceed through arene radical-cations, generated by single electron-transfer within BTIB/sub-strate charge-transfer complexes. 

Treatment of arenes or heteroarenes with oxidants can lead to the formation of radical cations by SET. These radical cations can dimerize, oligomerize, or react with other radicals present in the reaction mixture deprotonation of the resulting intermediates yields the final products (Scheme 3.18). 

In the non-phenolic oxidative coupling reaction the electron-rich arene 19 undergoes electron transfer yielding the radical cation 20, which is preferably treated in chlorinated solvents or strongly acidic media. Attack of 20 on the electron-rich reaction partner 21 will proceed in the same way as an electrophilic aromatic substitution involving adduct 22 which extrudes a proton. The intermediate radical 23 is subsequently oxidized to the cationic species 24 which forms the biaryl 25 by rearomatization. In contrast with the mechanism outlined in Scheme 5, two different oxidation steps are required. 

In contrast to oxidations with Mn(III) acetate, the oxidation of alkylbenzenes by the stronger oxidant, Co(III) acetate, appears to involve only electron transfer. No competition from classical free radical pathways is apparent. Waters and co-workers,239,240 studied the oxidation of a series of alkylbenzenes by Co(III) perchlorate in aqueous acetonitrile. They observed a correlation between the reactivity of the arene and the ionization potential of the hydrocarbon which was compatible with the formation of radical cations in an electron transfer process. 

The same electron transfer mechanism was proposed by Heiba et a/.242 247 and was supported by the observation by ESR of the radical cations of several arenes when they were treated with Co(III) acetate in trifluoracetic acid.248 Cobalt(III) is a stronger oxidant in trifluoracetic acid than in acetic acid217,249 (see later). In some cases (with electron-rich aromatics), radical cations were observed in acetic acid.242 Further evidence for the radical cation mechanism was obtained in the oxidation of p-methoxybenzyl phenyl sulfide.242 The pro-... 

We suggest that electron transfer and electrophilic substitutions are, in general, competing processes in arene oxidations. Whether the product is formed from the radical cation (electron transfer) or from the aryl-metal species (electrophilic substitution) is dependent on the nature of both the metal oxidant and the aromatic substrate. With hard metal ions, such as Co(III), Mn(III), and Ce(IV),289 reaction via electron transfer is preferred because of the low stability of the arylmetal bond. With soft metal ions, such as Pb(IV) and Tl(III), and Pd(II) (see later), reaction via an arylmetal intermediate is predominant (more stable arylmetal bond). For the latter group of oxidants, electron transfer becomes important only with electron-rich arenes that form radical cations more readily. In accordance with this postulate, the oxidation of several electron-rich arenes by lead(IV)281 289 and thallium(III)287 in TFA involve radical cation formation via electron transfer. Indeed, electrophilic aromatic substitutions, in general, may involve initial charge transfer, and the role of radical cations as discrete intermediates may depend on how fast any subsequent steps involving bond formation takes place. 

Surprisingly, alkanes containing tertiary C—H bonds showed poor reactivity in these reactions.2943 b 29Sa d Thus, isobutane was less reactive than n-butane, and methylcyclohexane less reactive than cyclohexane (cf., lower reactivity of cumene to toluene). In the series of normal alkanes, n-butane reacted faster than n-pentane. n-Undecane was unreactive. These results are inconsistent with a normal free radical autoxidation. The authors used the analogy with arene oxidations to postulate that formation of radical cations by electron transfer from the alkane to Co(III) was a critical factor ... 

However, it is difficult to reconcile the observed relative reactivities of hydrocarbons with a mechanism involving electron transfer as the rate-determining process. For example, n-butane is more reactive than isobutane despite its higher ionization potential (see Table VII). Similarly, cyclohexane undergoes facile oxidation by Co(III) acetate under conditions in which benzene, which has a significantly lower ionization potential (Table VII), is completely inert. Perhaps the answer to these apparent anomalies is to be found in the reversibility of the electron transfer step. Thus, k-j may be much larger than k2 for substrates, such as benzene, that cannot form a stable radical by proton loss from the radical cation [Eqs. (224) and (225)]. With alkanes and alkyl-substituted arenes, on the other hand, proton loss in Eq. (225) is expected to be fast. 

If fcf > feBET- the overall transformation can occur rapidly despite unfavorable driving forces for the electron transfer itself. Only follow-up reactions with high kf can compete with back electron transfer. Different kinds of such unimolecular processes can drive the equilibria toward the final product. A representative example is the mesolytic cleavage of the C-Sn bond in the radical cation resulting from the oxidation of benzylstannane by photoexcited 9,10-dicyanoanthracene (DCA). This is followed by the addition of the benzyl radical and the tributyltin cation to the reduced acceptor DCA [59]. In the arene/nitrosonium system, [ArH, NO+] complexes can exist in solution in equilibrium with a low steady-state concentration of the ion-radical pair. However, the facile deprotonation or fragmentation of the arene cation radical in the case of bifunctional donors such as octamethyl(diphenyl)methane and bicumene can result in an effective (ET) transformation of the arene donor [28, 59]. Another pathway involves collapse of the contact ion pair [D+, A- ] by rapid formation of a bond between the cation radical and anion radical (which effectively competes with the back electron transfer), as illustrated by the examples in Chart 5 [59]. 

The benzyl radicals generated by efficient deprotonation or electrofugal group loss from the benzylic position of arene radical cations (Eq.4) have found interesting applications in organic synthesis [25]. Some of the examples pertaining to this class are exemplified in Sect. 2.5. A recent publication of Santamaria et al. [26] illustrates the use of PET generated benzylic radicals (via deprotonation step from arene radical cations) for selective and mild photo-oxidation of... 

Various bifunctional resins are based on acrylic epoxide monomers. Such systems can photopolymerize by the radical and/or cationic mechanism. With iron arene photoinitiators in the presence of an oxidant, radical as well as cationic photopolymerization of these monomers is possible . Onium -type photoinitiators form radical species upon photolysis, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The local radical concentration is, however, too low to permit the polymerization of such systems... 

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