Free radical stabilization energies

Quantum chemistry provides a powerful tool for studying kinetic and mechanistic problems in free-radical polymerization. Provided a high level of theory is used, ah initio calculations can provide direct access to accurate values of the barriers, enthalpies, and rates of the individual reactions in the process, and also provide useful related information (such as transition structures and radical stabilization energies) to help in understanding the reaction mechanism. In the following, some of the applications of quantum chemistry are outlined. This is not intended to be a review of the main contributions to this field, nor is it intended to provide a theoretical account of reactivity in free-radical polymerization (108). Instead, some of the types of problems that quantum chemistry can tackle are described, with a view to highlighting the potential of quantum-chemical calculations as a tool for studying free-radical polymerization (see Radical Polymerization). 

Some of the evidence indicating that alkyl substituents stabilize free radicals comes from bond energies The strength of a bond is measured by the energy required to break It A covalent bond can be broken m two ways In a homolytic cleavage a bond between two atoms is broken so that each of them retains one of the electrons m the bond... 

FIGURE 4 20 The bond dis sociation energies of methy lene and methyl C—H bonds in propane reveal difference in stabilities between two isomeric free radicals The secondary radical is more stable than the primary... 

Breaking a bond to a primary hydrogen atom m propene requires less energy by 42 kJ/mol (10 kcal/mol) than m propane The free radical produced from propene is allylic and stabilized by electron delocalization the one from propane is not... 

Copolymers of VF and a wide variety of other monomers have been prepared (6,41—48). The high energy of the propagating vinyl fluoride radical strongly influences the course of these polymerizations. VF incorporates well with other monomers that do not produce stable free radicals, such as ethylene and vinyl acetate, but is sparingly incorporated with more stable radicals such as acrylonitrile [107-13-1] and vinyl chloride. An Alfrey-Price value of 0.010 0.005 and an e value of 0.8 0.2 have been determined (49). The low value of is consistent with titde resonance stability and the e value is suggestive of an electron-rich monomer. 

Dissociation energies D values) of R—H bonds provide a measure of the relative inherent stability of free radicals Table 5.4 lists such values. The higher the D value, the less stable the radical. Bond dissociation energies have also been reported for the C—H bond of alkenes and dienes and for the C—H bond in radical precursors XYC—H, where X,Y can be H, alkyl, COOR, COR, SR, CN, NO2, and so... 

Finally it has to be remarked briefly that the reactivity and selectivity of free radicals is certainly not only determined by steric and bond energy effects or by the thermodynamic stability of these transients. Polar effects are also important, in particular in those reactions which have early transition states e.g., the steps of free radical chain reactions12. They are either due to dipole interactions in the ground state or to charge polarization at transition states. FMO-theory apparently offers a more modern interpretation of many of these effects13. ... 

The rate of dye decomposition should be negligible at exposure energies up to several thousand times the energy absorbed during the read process and increase rapidly thereafter. Dye compositions which exhibit this type of threshold behavior must have relatively high photochemical and thermal stability and decompose by a free radical process above the melting point of the substrate.199... 

The explanation of "mesomerism" he argued, lies in energy relationships, namely, that there are two or more extreme forms of similar or equal energy, and the ordinary form and energy of the molecule can best be interpreted quantum mechanically. Ingold treated this idea more thoroughly in his 1937 Faraday Society article on the relation between chemical and physical theories of the source of the stability of organic free radicals.64... 

The first indication of the existence of a captodative substituent effect by Dewar (1952) was based on 7t-molecular orbital theory. The combined action of the n-electrons of a donor and a captor substituent on the total Jt-electron energy of a free radical was derived by perturbation theory. Besides the formulation of this special stabilizing situation and the quotation of a literature example [5] (Goldschmidt, 1920, 1929) as experimental evidence, the elaboration of the phenomenon was not pursued further, neither theoretically nor experimentally. 

Spin-density distributions are inherent features of free radicals. Esr experiments take place when the radical is in its electronic ground state and the measurement of the spin distribution constitutes only a minute perturbation of the system. This feature and the fact that esr hyperfine splitting can be measured with high precision makes the esr method ideally suited for the study of substituent effects. Therefore, if spin delocalization is accepted as a measure of stabilization, the data in Table 6 provide quantitative information. However, these are percentage values and not energies of stabiliza-... 

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