Hydrogen atom abstractions

This behavior is characteristic of radical reactions. Consider another example, one that shows another way in which radicals can react They can combine with a compound containing a multiple bond to produce a new radical, which goes on to react further. (We shall study reactions of this type in Section 10.10.) 

When atoms combine to form molecules, energy is released as covalent bonds form. The molecules of the products have lower enthalpy than the separate atoms. When hydrogen atoms combine to form hydrogen molecules, for example, the reaction is exothermic it evolves 436 kJ of heat for every mole of hydrogen that is produced. Similarly, when chlorine atoms combine to form chlorine molecules, the reaction evolves 243 kJ moF of chlorine produced  

Reactions in which only bond breaking occurs are always endothermic. The energy required to break the covalent bonds of hydrogen or chlorine homolytically is exactly equal 

The homolytic bond dissociation energies of hydrogen and chlorine, for example, can be written in the following way  

The homolytic bond dissociation energies of a variety of covalent bonds have been determined experimentally or calculated from related data. Some of these DH° values are listed in Table 10.1. 

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Step 2 Hydrogen atom abstraction from methane by a chlorine atom... 

The relative rates of reaction of ethane toluene and ethylbenzene with bromine atoms have been measured The most reactive hydrocarbon undergoes hydrogen atom abstraction a million times faster than does the least reactive one Arrange these hydrocarbons in order of decreasing reactivity... 

Selective chlorination of the 3-position of thietane 1,1-dioxide may be a consequence of hydrogen atom abstraction by a chlorine atom. Such reactions of chlorine atoms are believed to be influenced by polar effects, preferential hydrogen abstraction occurring remotely from an electron withdrawing group. The free radical chain reaction may be propagated by attack of the 3-thietanyl 1,1-dioxide radical on molecular chlorine. 

The selectivity observed in most intramolecular functionalizations depends on the preference for a six-membered transition state in the hydrogen-atom abstraction step. Appropriate molecules can be constmcted in which steric or conformational effects dictate a preference for selective abstraction of a hydrogen that is more remote from the reactive radical. 

One of the most common reactions of photoexcited carbonyl groups is hydrogen-atom abstraction from solvent or some other hydrogen donor. A second common reaction is cleavage of the carbon-carbon bond adjacent to the carbonyl group ... 

The intermediates which are generated are free radicals. The hydrogen-atom abstraction can be either intramolecular or intermolecular. Many aromatic ketones react by hydrogen-atom abstraction, and the stable products are diols formed by coupling of the resulting a-hydroxyben2yl radicals ... 

The efficiency of reduction of benzophenone derivatives is greatly diminished when an ortho alkyl substituent is present because a new photoreaction, intramolecular hydrogen-atom abstraction, then becomes the dominant process. The abstraction takes place from the benzylic position on the adjacent alkyl chain, giving an unstable enol that can revert to the original benzophenone without photoreduction. This process is known as photoenolization Photoenolization can be detected, even though no net transformation of the reactant occurs, by photolysis in deuterated hydroxylic solvents. The proton of the enolic hydroxyl is rapidly exchanged with solvent, so deuterium is introduced at the benzylic position. Deuterium is also introduced if the enol is protonated at the benzylic carbon by solvent ... 

Intramolecular hydrogen-atom abstraction is also an important process for acyclic a,/ -unsaturated ketones. The intermediate diradical then cyclizes to give the enol of a cyclobutyl ketone. Among the by-products of such photolyses are cyclobutanols resulting from alternative modes of cyclization of the diradical intermediate ... 

Spin density surface for the most stable radical formed by hydrogen atom abstraction from a model of a-tocopherol shows delocalization of the unpaired electron. 

Examine the energies of radicals resulting from hydrogen atom abstraction in 3-ethylpentane. Which radical is the lowest energy Is there a relationship between the CH bond lengths in 3-ethylpentane and the stabilities of the radicals resulting from bond dissociation Elaborate. 

Draw resonance structures for the possible radicals resulting from hydrogen atom abstraction from toluene. Which would you anticipate to be the most stable Why Compare energies for the different radicals (radical A, radical B,. ..). Is the lowest-energy radical that which you anticipated Are any of the alternatives significantly better than any of the others Explain your reasoning. 

Atom or radical transfer reactions generally proceed by a SH2 mechanism (substitution, homolytie, bimolecular) that can be depicted as shown in Figure 1.6. This area has been the subject of a number of reviews.1 3 27 97 99 The present discussion is limited, in the main, to hydrogen atom abstraction from aliphatic substrates and the factors which influence rate and specificity of this reaction. 

Figure 1.6 Transition state for hydrogen atom abstraction.

The most direct evidence that stereoelectronic effects are also important in these reactions follows from the specificity observed in hydrogen atom abstraction from conformationally constrained compounds,18 60 C-H bonds adjacent to oxygen113"118 or nitrogen110 and which subtend a small dihedral angle with a lone pair orbital (<30°) are considerably activated in relation to those where the dihedral angle is or approaches 90°. Thus, the equatorial H in 20 is reported to be 12 times more reactive towards /-butoxy radicals than the axial 11 in 21.115... 

However, the situation is not as clear-cut as it might at first seem since a variety of other factors may also contribute to the above-mentioned trend. Abuin et a/.141 pointed out that the transition state for addition is sterically more demanding than that for hydrogen-atom abstraction. Within a given series (alkyl or alkoxy), the more nucleophilic radicals are generally the more bulky (i.e. steric factors favor the same trends). It can also be seen from Tabic 1.6 that, for alkyl radicals, the values of D decrease in the series primary>secondary>tertiary (i.e. relative bond strengths favor the same trend). 

Various light-induced reactions including hydrogen atom abstraction, electron transfer and (3-scission occur under the influence of UV light. Certain... 

Lewin and Cohen (1967) determined the products of dediazoniation of ben-zophenone-2-diazonium salt (10.42, Scheme 10-77) in five different aqueous systems (Table 10-7). About one-third of the yield is 2-hydroxybenzophenone (10.46) and two-thirds is fluorenone (10.45, run 1) copper has no effect (run 2). On the other hand, addition of cuprous oxide (run 3) has a striking effect on product ratio and rate. The reaction occurs practically instantaneously and yields predominantly fluorenone. As shown in Scheme 10-77, the authors propose that, after primary dediazoniation and electron transfer from Cu1 to 10.43 the sigma-complex radical 10.44 yields fluorenone by retro-electron-transfer to Cu11 and deprotonation. In the presence of the external hydrogen atom source dioxane (run 12) the reaction yields benzophenone cleanly (10.47) after hydrogen atom abstraction from dioxane by the radical 10.43. 

The excited triplet states of quinones can be fairly readily populated by irradiation and nuclear polarization observed (Cocivera, 1968). Hydrogen atom abstraction leads to the relatively stable semiquinone radicals and, in alkaline media, radical anions. Recombination of radical pairs formed in this way can give rise to CIDNP signals, as found on irradiation of phenanthraquinone (20) in the presence of donors such as fluorene, xanthene and diphenylmethane (Maruyama et al., 1971a, c Shindo et al., 1971 see also Maruyama et al., 1972). The adducts are believed to have the 1,2-structure (21) with the methine proton appearing in absorption in the polarized spectrum, as expected for a triplet precursor. Consistently, thermal decomposition of 21 as shown in equation (61) leads to polarization of the reactant but now in emission (Maruyama... 

In the case of carbanion and radical intermediates the solvent is less important but the products are partially determined by the resistance of the medium to proton or hydrogen atom abstraction respectively. The increased stability of these intermediates compared with carbonium ions allows the reaction mechanism to be more readily modified by the addition of trapping agents. For example, carbanions are trapped in high yields by the presence of carbon dioxide in the electrolysis medium (Wawzonek and Wearring, 1959 Wawzonek et al., 1955). 

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