Charge transfer, oxidative addition

With bromine, diorganosulfldes tend to furnish charge transfer adducts, whereas selenides can give equilibria between C.T. adducts and products from oxidative addition, i.e. molecular Se(IV) compounds.23 A particular example of such equilibria is the bromination of selenanthrene reported by Nakanishi et al.24 (see Chapters 8.2 and 10.3).24... 

Despite intense study of the chemical reactivity of the inorganic NO donor SNP with a number of electrophiles and nucleophiles (in particular thiols), the mechanism of NO release from this drug also remains incompletely understood. In biological systems, both enzymatic and non-enzymatic pathways appear to be involved [28]. Nitric oxide release is thought to be preceded by a one-electron reduction step followed by release of cyanide, and an inner-sphere charge transfer reaction between the ni-trosonium ion (NO+) and the ferrous iron (Fe2+). Upon addition of SNP to tissues, formation of iron nitrosyl complexes, which are in equilibrium with S-nitrosothiols, has been observed. A membrane-bound enzyme may be involved in the generation of NO from SNP in vascular tissue [35], but the exact nature of this reducing activity is unknown. 

A similar (but somewhat less obvious) dichotomy results in the simultaneous ring and sidechain substitution of durene. Thus in this charge-transfer nitration, the addition of N02 to the cation radical DUR+- (72) occurs in competition with its deprotonation (73), in which the pyridine has been shown to act as a base (Masnovi et al., 1989) (Scheme 15). [Note that deprotonation of DUR+- also leads to aromatic dimers via the subsequent (oxidative) substitution of the benzylic radical formed in (73) (Bewick et al., 1975 Lau and Kochi, 1984).]... 

Rubredoxin is an electron-transfer protein with an Fe(IlI)/Fe(lI) redox couple at -0.31 V (SCE) in water (20). Our peptide model, [Fe( Cys-Pro-Leu-Cys-OMe)2] (Z = benzyloxycarbonyl) (21) exhibits its Fe(lll)/Fe(ll) redox couple at -0.50 V (SCE) in Mc2SO (9). This is similar to the value observed for the native protein when the difference of the solvent is taken into account. When the model complex is solubilized in water by formation of micelles with addition of the non-ionic detergent, Triton X-KX), we also observed a quasi-reversible redox couple at -0.37 V (SCE) (5). The Fe(lll) complexes of Cys-X-Y-Cys peptides also exhibit a characteristic MCD band at 350 nm due to ligand-to-metal charge transfer which has also been found in oxidized rubredoxin (4). 

Compared with the variety of existing carbon or nitrogen nucleophiles that were subjected to nucleophilic addition to there are few examples for phosphorus nucleophiles. Neutral trialkylphosphines turn out to be to less reactive for an effective addihon to Cjq even at elevated temperatures [114], Trialkylphosphine oxides show an increased reactivity. They form stable fullerene-substituted phosphine oxides [115] it is not yet clear if the reaction proceeds via a nucleophilic mechanism or a cycloaddition mechanism. Phosphine oxide addition takes place in refluxing toluene [115], At room temperature the charge-transfer complexes of with phosphine oxides such as tri-n-octylphosphine oxide or tri-n-butylphosphine oxide are verifiable and stable in soluhon [116],... 

---