Aromatic compounds reactivity with radicals

The previous sections leave no doubts that aromatic compounds, react with positively charged electrophiles to form a-complexes-arenium ions. But are they the primary intermediates It is not by accident that the problem of preliminary formation of radical cations has arisen. Its statement is an attempts to explain the orientational peculiarities of electrophilic aromatic substitution of hydrogen. The widespread view that the orientation in the reactions of aromatic compounds with electrophiles is dictated by the relative stabilities of the cr-complexes explains but a part of the accumulated material. In the first place this refers to the meta- and para-orienting effects of electron-releasing substituents in benzene in terms of the QCT -approach and to that of the relative reactivity of various aromatic substrates... 

The competitive method employed for determining relative rates of substitution in homolytic phenylation cannot be applied for methylation because of the high reactivity of the primary reaction products toward free methyl radicals. Szwarc and his co-workers, however, developed a technique for measuring the relative rates of addition of methyl radicals to aromatic and heteroaromatic systems. - In the decomposition of acetyl peroxide in isooctane the most important reaction is the formation of methane by the abstraction of hydrogen atoms from the solvent by methyl radicals. When an aromatic compound is added to this system it competes with the solvent for methyl radicals, Eqs, (28) and (29). Reaction (28) results in a decrease in the amount... 

Price i was the first to suggest that the factor of specificity in monomer addition is owing to electrostatic interaction of net charges on the monomer double bond and on the radical arising from polarization by the substituent. Alfrey and Price proposed that the rate constant be written, in analogy with Hammett s equation for the effects of nuclear substituents on the reactivity of aromatic compounds, as follows ... 

These results lead to a general mechanism for the reaction nitrenium ions with aromatic compounds (Fig. 13.71). Initial encounter leads to a 7i-complex (141). The latter is converted into isomeric a complexes (142-144) which, in turn, either tau-tomerize to give stable adducts (145-147) or else dissociate to give radicals. The relative rates of these processes depend on the reactivities of the nitrenium ion and the arene. With less reactive nitrenium ions the 7i-complex is relatively long lived. With more reactive nitrenium ions the n complex forms in a low steady-state... 

From the decomposition mechanism and the products formed it can be deduced that DCP primarily generates cumyloxy radicals, which further decompose into highly reactive methyl radicals and acetophenone, having a typical sweet smell. Similarly, tert-butyl cumyl peroxide (TBCP) forms large quantities of acetophenone, as this compound still half-resembles DCP. From the decomposition products of l-(2-6 rt-butylperoxyisopropyl)-3-isopropenyl benzene ( ), it can be deduced that the amount of aromatic alcohol and aromatic ketone are below the detection limit (<0.01 mol/mol decomposed peroxide) furthermore no traces of other decomposition products could be identified. This implies that most likely the initially formed aromatic decomposition products reacted with the substrate by the formation of adducts. In addition, unlike DCP, there is no possibility of TBIB (because of its chemical structure) forming acetophenone. As DTBT contains the same basic tert-butyl peroxide unit as TBIB, it may be anticipated that their primary decomposition products will be similar. This also explains why the decomposition products obtained from the multifunctional peroxides do not provide an unpleasant smell, unlike DCP [37, 38]. 

For oxidations, the cation radicals of aromatic compounds like 9,10-diphenyl-antracene, thiantrene, phenoxathiine, or dibenzodioxine are likely candidates. Their reactivity towards nucleophiles, however, limits their application to media of low nucleophilicity. Sometimes the stability of such cation radicals can be enhanced through blocking the reactive positions by substituents. For example, para-substituted triarylamines deliver cation radicals with often excellent stability even in methanol. The stability is further increased by incorporation of urzAu-substituents. Other mediators which have been applied in indirect electrosyntheses are those which are able to abstract hydrogen atoms or hydride atoms. 

Rate constants for the reaction of hydroxyl radicals with different compounds were determined by Haag and Yao (1992) and Chramosta et al. (1993). In the study of Haag and Yao (1992) all hydroxyl radical rate constants were determined using competition kinetics. The measured rate constants demonstrate that OH0 is a relatively nonselective radical towards C-H bonds, but is least reactive with aliphatic polyhalogenated compounds. Olefins and aromatics react with nearly diffusion-controlled rates. Table 4-3 gives some examples comparing direct (kD) and indirect (kR) reaction rate constants of important micropollutants in drinking water. 

Therefore, one-electron oxidation of naphthalene by NO+ is the rate-determining stage at low naphthalene concentrations (<=> means equilibrium of this oxidation). At high naphthalene concentrations, the rate of the process no longer depends on the rate of accumulation of the cation radical species. In this case the rate depends on recombination of the species with N02 radical. The authors point out that for many of the more reactive aromatic compounds, reaction paths involving electron transfer in nitration will become more important as the concentration of the aromatic compound is increased, irrespective of the concentration of the species accepting the electron (Leis et al. 1988). 

Because hydroxyl radicals have indiscriminate reactivity, they can react with almost all types of organic and inorganic compounds. Most aromatic compounds undergo radical attack on the aromatic ring in a manner similar to that of benzene systems. The products and the rate constants for hydroxyl radical attack on aromatic compounds are listed in Table 5.11. The data were obtained from the pulse radiolysis studies (Buxton et al., 1988). 

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