Radical Cation Chain Reactions

Cation (Section 1 2) Positively charged ion Cellobiose (Section 25 14) A disacchande in which two glu cose units are joined by a 3(1 4) linkage Cellobiose is oh tamed by the hydrolysis of cellulose Cellulose (Section 25 15) A polysaccharide in which thou sands of glucose units are joined by 3(1 4) linkages Center of symmetry (Section 7 3) A point in the center of a structure located so that a line drawn from it to any element of the structure when extended an equal distance in the op posite direction encounters an identical element Benzene for example has a center of symmetry Cham reaction (Section 4 17) Reaction mechanism m which a sequence of individual steps repeats itself many times usu ally because a reactive intermediate consumed m one step is regenerated m a subsequent step The halogenation of alkanes is a chain reaction proceeding via free radical intermediates... 

Polyethylene (Section 6 21) A polymer of ethylene Polymer (Section 6 21) Large molecule formed by the repeti tive combination of many smaller molecules (monomers) Polymerase chain reaction (Section 28 16) A laboratory method for making multiple copies of DNA Polymerization (Section 6 21) Process by which a polymer is prepared The principal processes include free radical cationic coordination and condensation polymerization Polypeptide (Section 27 1) A polymer made up of many (more than eight to ten) amino acid residues Polypropylene (Section 6 21) A polymer of propene Polysaccharide (Sections 25 1 and 25 15) A carbohydrate that yields many monosacchande units on hydrolysis Potential energy (Section 2 18) The energy a system has ex elusive of Its kinetic energy... 

The electrolysis of adamantylideneadamantane solutions affords the radical cation, which can add molecular (triplet) oxygen to give the peroxide radical anion, which can react with adamantylideneadamantane to give the 1,4-diradical and another molecule of adamantylideneadamantane radical cation. The latter reacts with oxygen, to continue the chain of the reaction, while the former cyclizes to the corresponding 1,2-dioxetane (Scheme 18) (81JA2098). 

Synthetic polymers can be classified as either chain-growth polymen or step-growth polymers. Chain-growth polymers are prepared by chain-reaction polymerization of vinyl monomers in the presence of a radical, an anion, or a cation initiator. Radical polymerization is sometimes used, but alkenes such as 2-methylpropene that have electron-donating substituents on the double bond polymerize easily by a cationic route through carbocation intermediates. Similarly, monomers such as methyl -cyanoacrylate that have electron-withdrawing substituents on the double bond polymerize by an anionic, conjugate addition pathway. 

Two pathways for the reaction of sulfate radical anion with monomers have been described (Scheme 3.81).252 These are (A) direct addition to the double bond or (B) electron transfer to generate a radical cation. The radical cation may also be formed by an addition-elimination sequence. It has been postulated that the radical cation can propagate by either cationic or a radical mechanism (both mechanisms may occur simultaneously). However, in aqueous media the cation is likely to hydrate rapidly to give a hydroxyelhyl chain end. 

The Tafel slopes obtained under concentrations of the chemical components that we suspect act on the initiation reaction (monomer, electrolyte, water contaminant, temperature, etc.) and that correspond to the direct discharge of the monomer on the clean electrode, allow us to obtain knowledge of the empirical kinetics of initiation and nucleation.22-36 These empirical kinetics of initiation were usually interpreted as polymerization kinetics. Monomeric oxidation generates radical cations, which by a polycondensation mechanism give the ideal linear chains ... 

Tram-anular interactions, which would create an active radical site via hydrogen transfer through 98, cannot be invoked to explain the specific loss of a CH3 radical from the ether side chain. This conclusions is based upon the following experimental observations. The radical cation of the tetrafluoro substituted compound 101 eliminates CH3, but loss of CH3 from the para-isomer 102 is not observed. If a transanuiar process according to 97- 98 were operative, then such a reaction is not expected to be suppressed upon substitution of H by F as is known for many examples from the field of photochemistry of fluoro substituted compounds41 (23). 

For the copper-induced decomposition of diazodiphenylmethane in acetonitrile, a fundamental difference in the catalytic action of Cu C104 and Cu ClO was detected. Whilst with CuC104, intermediary copper carbenoids are believed to be responsible for the mainly formed benzophenone azine402, CufClO initiates a chain reaction, promoted by radical cations and yielding mainly tetraphenylethene... 

Another differential reaction is copolymerization. An equi-molar mixture of styrene and methyl methacrylate gives copolymers of different composition depending on the initiator. The radical chains started by benzoyl peroxide are 51 % polystyrene, the cationic chains from stannic chloride or boron trifluoride etherate are 100% polystyrene, and the anionic chains from sodium or potassium are more than 99 % polymethyl methacrylate.444 The radicals attack either monomer indiscriminately, the carbanions prefer methyl methacrylate and the carbonium ions prefer styrene. As can be seen from the data of Table XIV, the reactivity of a radical varies considerably with its structure, and it is worth considering whether this variability would be enough to make a radical derived from sodium or potassium give 99 % polymethyl methacrylate.446 If so, the alkali metal intitiated polymerization would not need to be a carbanionic chain reaction. However, the polymer initiated by triphenylmethyl sodium is also about 99% polymethyl methacrylate, whereas tert-butyl peroxide and >-chlorobenzoyl peroxide give 49 to 51 % styrene in the initial polymer.445... 

Chain-reaction mechanisms differ according to the nature of the reactive intermediate in the propagation steps, such as free radicals, ions, or coordination compounds. These give rise to radical-addition polymerization, ionic-addition (cationic or anionic) polymerization, etc. In Example 7-4 below, we use a simple model for radical-addition polymerization. 

Radiative cooling, 23 13-14 Radiative heating/cooling, 23 25-26 Radical catalysts, 14 274 Radical cations, 12 249 Radical chain reactions, 14 274 Radical cyclization approach, 21 147 Radical decomposition reaction, 10 600 Radical generating systems, alternative, 14 299... 

Radical addition to an Af-acyliminium ion is also an interesting feature of the cation pool chemistry. We found that an alkyl iodide reacted with an N-acyliminium ion pool in the presence of hexabutyldistannane to give coupling product 19.24 A chain mechanism shown in Scheme 10, which involves the addition of the alkyl radical to the N-acyliminium ion to form the corresponding radical cation, seems to be reasonable. The present reaction opens a new possibility for radical-cation crossover mediated carbon-carbon bond formation. 

In designing preparative radical ionic chain reactions, including the fragmentation approach to alkene radical cations, careful choice of the radical... 

In the gluco case (Scheme 13) the radical cyclization, with its requirement for the formation of a czs-fused ring junction [129,130], takes place uneventfully on the opposite face of the alkene radical cation to the one shielded by the phosphate anion, whereas in the manno series cyclization is severely retarded by the presence of the phosphate group above the face of the radical cation on which cyclization must occur. This steric retardation of the cyclization step results in a breakdown of chain propagation and results in the longer reaction times observed. Furthermore, the retardation of the radical cyclization step in the manno case enables the alkene radical cation to take... 

Traditional polymerizations usually involve AB-type monomers based on substituted ethylenes, strained small ring compounds using chain reactions that may be initiated by free radical, anionic or cationic initiators [20]. Alternatively, AB-type monomers may be used in polycondensation reactions. 

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