Divalent atoms, abstraction

The Benson mechanism can in principle be extended without major modifications to insertion reactions of other divalent species, such as oxygen and sulfur atoms. With oxygen, Yamaaaki and Cvetanovid have shown recently that 0( Z>) atoms preferentially insert, while 0( P) atoms abstract. This despite the fact that the singlet state hes some 48 kcal./ mole above the ground triplet state. On the other hand, sulfur atom reactions seem compatible with the proposed mechanism. Thus, if one attempts to apply it for the insertion of S( D) atoms, one finds that its predictions are consistent with the experimentally observed trend in the reaction rates. Here the transition state, due to the ionization potential and electron affinity of S( Z)) atoms being higher than those of alkyl radicals (9.2 and 2.2 e.v., respectively) could be formulated as... 

In a chain reaction, the step that determines what the product will be is most often an abstraction step. What is abstracted by a free radical is almost never a tetra- or tervalent atom (except in strained systems, see p. 989) and seldom a divalent one. Nearly always it is univalent, and so, for organic compounds, it is hydrogen or halogen. For example, a reaction between a chlorine atom and ethane gives an ethyl radical, not a hydrogen atom ... 

For a monograph on abstractions of divalent and higher valent atoms, see Ingold, K.U. Roberts, B.P. Free-Radical Substitution Reactions, Wiley NY, 1971. 

Abstract The theoretical and experimental research on carbodiphosphoranes C(PR3)2 and related compounds CL2, both as free molecules and as ligands in transition metal complexes, is reviewed. Carbodiphosphoranes are examples of divalent carbon(O) compounds CL2 which have peculiar donor properties that are due to the fact that the central carbon atom has two lone electron pairs. The bonding situation is best described in terms of L C L donor acceptor interactions which distinguishes CL2 compounds (carbones) from divalent carbon(ll) compounds (carbenes) through the number of lone electron pairs. The stmctures and stabilities of transition metal complexes with ligands CL2 can be understood and predictions can be made considering the double donor ability of the carbone compounds. 

Given the isoelectronic relationship between [CR] and [NO] and the ubiquity of this latter ligand in the coordination chemistry of later transition metals, the scarcity of mononuclear alkylidyne complexes of metals from groups 8-10 is surprising [1-4]. Isolated examples have been reported for iron [5], cobalt [6], ruthenium [4,7], osmium [4,8-9] and iridium [10]. Most of the examples known employ routes with extensive precedent in early transition metal systems, i.e., either electrophilic attack at the p-atom of a hetero carbonyl (CS [5], CTe [4], or C=CH2 [10]) or the Lewis-acid assisted abstraction of an alkoxide group from a carbene precursor [5] (Scheme 1). The one approach which is, too date, peculiar to group 8 metals involves reduction of a divalent dichlorocarbene complex by lithium aryls [4]. The limitation of this procedure to ruthenium and osmium is presumably not a feature of these metals but rather a result of the present lack of synthetic routes to suitable dihalocarbene precursor complexes of earlier metals. 

Iron and other transition or divalent metal ions react with polyunsaturated fats, abstracting an electron or a hydrogen atom (see Equation 1). The reaction of a polyunsaturated lipid, LH, with a prooxidant such as a transition metal ion, X, generates a lipid free radical, L. The initiation of oxidation by metals correlates to the ignition source, the match, in the combustion triangle. 

---