Diphenylethylene inhibition

The remainder of the mechanistic information presented in this review draws from the investigations and proposals by Lockhardt391 and Barton and coworkers343 on the intermediacy of hypervalent copper(III) species during the reactions of diaryliodonium salts and pentavalent bismuth reagents. Most of the reactions utilize Cu(I) or Cu(II) salts as the starting copper source. Radical mechanisms are ruled out because the reactions are not inhibited when radical scavengers (such as 1,1-diphenylethylene) are added. It appears that Cu(H) is not the major catalytic species in the reaction. 

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