Electron transfer organic radical ions

Styrene and 1,1-diphenylethene are frequently used as target molecules in investigations of the role of reagent structure on its reactivity toward organic compounds. Low-temperature fluorination with trifluoromethyl hypofluorite gives up to six products.32-33 The Hammett correlation value q was established to be — 2.48 and a mechanism suggested in which spin-paired free-radical pairs arc formed, which are then converted by electron transfer into an ion pair.33... 

Much work has been undertaken to modify electrode surfaces with films which are themselves conducting. The most promising approaches involve organic charge transfer and radical ion polymers. Coordination chemistry has, to date, played little part in this work (a good recent review is available),67 but one example relating to ferrocene chemistry can be quoted. In this example a well known electron acceptor, 7,7, 8,8 -tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ 27), is modified and incorporated into polymer (28) in which the iron(II) of the ferrocene unit is the electron donor. The electrical conductivity of such a film will depend on partial electron transfer between ion and TCNQ centres as well as on the stacking of the polymer chains. The chemistry of other materials, based on coordination compounds, which have enhanced electrical conductivity is covered in Chapter 61. 

Redox reactions of organic molecules are rarely fully reversible due to the high reactivity of the ion radical state created in the first electron transfer. Although the ion radical state is... 

Most of the free-radical mechanisms discussed thus far have involved some combination of homolytic bond dissociation, atom abstraction, and addition steps. In this section, we will discuss reactions that include discrete electron-transfer steps. Addition to or removal of one electron fi om a diamagnetic organic molecule generates a radical. Organic reactions that involve electron-transfer steps are often mediated by transition-metal ions. Many transition-metal ions have two or more relatively stable oxidation states differing by one electron. Transition-metal ions therefore firequently participate in electron-transfer processes. 

Elegant evidence that free electrons can be transferred from an organic donor to a diazonium ion was found by Becker et al. (1975, 1977a see also Becker, 1978). These authors observed that diazonium salts quench the fluorescence of pyrene (and other arenes) at a rate k = 2.5 x 1010 m-1 s-1. The pyrene radical cation and the aryldiazenyl radical would appear to be the likely products of electron transfer. However, pyrene is a weak nucleophile the concentration of its covalent product with the diazonium ion is estimated to lie below 0.019o at equilibrium. If electron transfer were to proceed via this proposed intermediate present in such a low concentration, then the measured rate constant could not be so large. Nevertheless, dynamic fluorescence quenching in the excited state of the electron donor-acceptor complex preferred at equilibrium would fit the facts. Evidence supporting a diffusion-controlled electron transfer (k = 1.8 x 1010 to 2.5 X 1010 s-1) was provided by pulse radiolysis. 

The formation of Grignard reagents takes place at the metal surface. Reaction commences with an electron transfer to the halide and decomposition of the radical ion, followed by rapid combination of the organic group with a magnesium ion.1 It... 

MnP is the most commonly widespread of the class II peroxidases [72, 73], It catalyzes a PLC -dependent oxidation of Mn2+ to Mn3+. The catalytic cycle is initiated by binding of H2O2 or an organic peroxide to the native ferric enzyme and formation of an iron-peroxide complex the Mn3+ ions finally produced after subsequent electron transfers are stabilized via chelation with organic acids like oxalate, malonate, malate, tartrate or lactate [74], The chelates of Mn3+ with carboxylic acids cause one-electron oxidation of various substrates thus, chelates and carboxylic acids can react with each other to form alkyl radicals, which after several reactions result in the production of other radicals. These final radicals are the source of autocataly tic ally produced peroxides and are used by MnP in the absence of H2O2. The versatile oxidative capacity of MnP is apparently due to the chelated Mn3+ ions, which act as diffusible redox-mediator and attacking, non-specifically, phenolic compounds such as biopolymers, milled wood, humic substances and several xenobiotics [72, 75, 76]. 

New synthetic transformations are highly dependent on the dynamics of the contact ion pair, as well as reactivity of the individual radical ions. For example, the electron-transfer paradigm is most efficient with those organic donors yielding highly unstable cation radicals that undergo rapid unimolecular reactions. Thus, the hexamethyl(Dewar)benzene cation radical that is generated either via CT activation of the [D, A] complex with tropylium cation,74... 

As a 3-step mechanism, the electron-transfer paradigm provides a pair of discrete intermediates [D, A] and D+, A for the prior organization and the activation, respectively, of the donor and the acceptor. The quantitative evaluation of these intermediates would allow the overall second-order reaction (k2) to be determined. Although the presence of [D, A] does not necessarily imply its transformation to D+, A-, a large number and variety of donor/ acceptor couples showing transient charge-transfer absorptions associated with [D, A] have now been identified. In each case, the product can be predicted from the expected behavior of the individual ion radicals D+ and A-. Consider for example, the labile 1 1 benzene complex with bromine that has been isolated at low temperatures and characterized crystallographically (Chart 9).256... 

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