Cationic structures unimolecular reactions

A unimolecular ionization was shown to be the mechanism of solvolysis by means of rate studies, solvent effects, salt effects, and structural effects (179,180). The products of reaction consist of benzo [bjthiophen derivatives 209 or nucleophilic substitution products 210, depending upon the solvent system employed. By means of a series of elegant studies, Modena and co-workers have shown that the intermediate ion 208 can have either the open vinyl cation structure 208a or the cyclic thiirenium ion 208b, depending... 

Concerning their structure and reactions, organic radical cations have been the focus of much interest. Among bimolecular reactions, the addition to alkenes and their nucleophilic capture by alcohols, which lead to C—C and C—O bond formation, respectively have been investigated in detail. Unimolecular reactions like geometric isomerization and several other rearrangements have also attracted attention. 

Recently, some attempts were nndertaken to uncover the intimate mechanism of cation-radical deprotonation. Thns, the reaction of the 9-methyl-lO-phenylanthracene cation-radical with 2,6-Intidine (a base) was stndied (Ln et al. 2001). The reaction proceeds through two steps that involve the intermediary formation of a cation-radical/base complex before unimolecular proton transfer and separation of prodncts. Based on the value of the kinetic isotope effect observed, it was concluded that extensive proton tnnneling is involved in the proton-transfer reaction. The assumed structure of the intermediate complex involves n bonding between the unshared electron pair on nitrogen of the Intidine base with the electron-deficient n system of the cation-radical. Nonclassical cation-radicals wonld also be interesting reactants for snch a reaction. The cation-radical of the nonclassical natnre are known see Ikeda et al. (2005) and references cited therein. 

In addition to short-lived molecules that were assigned to the structure classes discussed above, there are various interesting intermediates that are mentioned here separately. Nitrosomethane (38), which is the less stable tautomer of formaldoxime, was generated by collisional reduction of the stable cation-radical and characterized by NRMS [155,156]. The precursor cation for 38 was produced by three different reactions, e.g., elimination of OH upon exothermic protonation of nitromethane [156], electron-induced loss of O from nitromethane [155, 156], and electron-induced CH20 extrusion from ethyl nitrite [156] (Scheme 15). Nitrosomethane gives rise to a moderately abundant survivor ion in the +NR+ mass spectrum and does not undergo unimolecular isomerization to any of its more stable tautomers. 

---