Electron spin resonance -active species

The chapter Electron Spin Resonance in Catalysis by Lunsford was prompted by the extensive activity in this field since the publication of an article on a similar subject in Volume 12 of this serial publication. This chapter is limited to paramagnetic species that are reasonably well defined by means of their spectra. It contains applications of ESR technique to the study of adsorbed atoms and molecules, and also to the evaluation of surface effects. The application of ESR to the determination of the state of transition metal ions in catalytic reactions is also discussed. 

Less clear is the sequence which leads to the formation of the active species in the case of catalysts prepared from zero-valent nickel complexes and aluminum halides or alkylaluminum halides (method C2). The catalytic properties of these systems, however—in particular, the influence of phosphines (76)—leaves no doubt that the active species is also of the HNiY type discussed above. In this connection, a recent electron spin resonance report that nickel(I) species are formed in the reaction of COD2Ni with AlBr3 (83 ), and the disproportionation of Ni(I) to Ni(II) and Ni(0) in the presence of Lewis acids (69) should be mentioned. 

Electron spin resonance (ESR) signals, detected from phosphinated polystyrene-supported cationic rhodium catalysts both before and after use (for olefinic and ketonic substrates), have been attributed to the presence of rhodium(II) species (348). The extent of catalysis by such species generally is uncertain, although the activity of one system involving RhCls /phosphinated polystyrene has been attributed to rho-dium(II) (349). Rhodium(II) phosphine complexes have been stabilized by steric effects (350), which could pertain to the polymer alternatively (351), disproportionation of rhodium(I) could lead to rhodium(II) [Eq. (61)]. The accompanying isolated metal atoms in this case offer a potential source of ESR signals as well as the catalysis. 

Figure 8 shows the relationship between the hydrogenolytic behaviors and reduction time (52). The Mo(V) in the reduced catalyst is related neither to the catalytic activity nor to the hydrogenolytic behaviors. The electron spin resonance signal reaches a maximum within a very short reduction period, then drops and reaches a constant with continued reduction. This variation of Mo(V) concentration is compatible with the data obtained by Seshadri and Petrakis (67) and Massoth (55). The changes in the bja ratio and the catalytic activity with the time of reduction agree with the amount of Mo(IV) species reported by Massoth (55), as quoted in Fig. 8. 

Electron spin resonance (ESR) studies of radical probe species also suggest complexity. Evans et al. [250] study the temperature dependence of IL viscosity and the diffusion of probe molecules in a series of dissimilar IL solvents. The results indicate that, at least over the temperature range studied, the activation energy for viscous flow of the liquid correlates well with the activation energies for both translational and rotational diffusion, indicative of Stoke-Einstein and Debye-Stokes-Einstein diffusion, respectively. Where exceptions to these trends are noted, they appear to be associated with structural inhomogeneity in the solvent. However, Strehmel and co-workers [251] take a different approach, and use ESR to study the behavior of spin probes in a homologous series of ILs. In these studies, comparisons of viscosity and probe dynamics across different (but structurally similar) ILs do not lead to a Stokes-Einstein correlation between viscosity and solute diffusion. Since the capacities for specific interactions are... 

In addition to the structure in the dehydrated state, the structure of supported vanadia catalysts under redox reaction conditions is directly related to the catalytic performance. Vanadia catalysts are usually reduced to some extent during a redox reaction, and the reduced vanadia species have been proposed as the active sites [4, 19-24]. Therefore, information on the valence state and molecular structure of the reduced vanadia catalysts is of great interest. A number of techniques have been applied to investigate the reduction of supported vanadia catalysts, such as temperature programmed reduction (TPR) [25-27], X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) [21], electron spin resonance (ESR) [22], UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS) [18, 28-32], X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) [11] and Raman spectroscopy [5, 26, 33-41]. Most of these techniques give information only on the oxidation state of vanadium species. Although Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool for characterization of the molecular structure of supported vanadia [4, 29, 42], it has been very difficult to detect reduced supported... 

Use of Electron Spin Resonance Techniques. Electron spin resonance (ESR) studies have been used to examine both activity of antioxidants " and their location within the Uposome . Studies of antioxidant radicals via ESR provide data on the electron delocalization within the antioxidant, which can be correlated with antioxidant activity, although not always with very good agreement with inhibition studies . Spin traps have been themselves examined as potential antioxidants, and have been used to attempt to trap peroxyl species for study . However, trapped peroxyl species are not very stable and carbon-centered radicals have been preferentially trapped, even though in some studies other techniques (e.g. malondialdehyde/thiobarbituric acid, MDA/TEARS-technique) indicate the presence of peroxide species in the sample . Eremy s salt ((K+S03 )2N0 ) has been used in micellar systems to determine rate constants quantitatively for the antioxidants a-Toc and ascorbic acid and their derivatives, because it reacts with them in a way similar to peroxyl radicals and can be used as a spin probe in stop-flow ESR studies . ESR has also been used to monitor the loss of dPPH and galvinoxyl signal intensity... 

A suitable homogeneous catalyst can be prepared by reacting five moles of diethylaluminum chloride with one mole of vanadium tetrachloride-anisole complex (V/CtHsO =r 1) at —78°C in toluene. Since the catalyst is thermally unstable at room temperature, the best results are obtained at very low temperatures. Electron spin resonance data suggested that the active species involves RVCI2 complexed with organoaluminum compounds (Natta et al., 1965). 

Electron spin resonance (ESR) is a sensitive spectroscopic method for the investigation of local crystal structure and electronic properties of paramagnetic species in materials. Such species carrying the magnetic moments are often employed as active electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries and their electrochemical properties substantially determined by their structural features. In this chapter, application of ESR method to study the electronic structure of layered and NASICON structured cathode materials is presented. 

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