Hydroxyl radical abstraction

Figure 2-17. Lipid peroxidation. A hydroxyl radical abstracts a hydrogen from a fatty acid or lipid molecule. After rearrangement to a conjugated structure, the radical reacts with oxygen to form a peroxyl radical. The newly formed peroxyl radical can initiate a chain reaction whereby new peroxyl radicals are formed.

Hart (1952, 1954) studied the oxidation of formic acid by the radiolysis method. In the presence of oxygen, hydroxyl radicals abstract hydrogen from HCOzH. Both the carboxyl radicals and formyl radicals are formed. These radicals undergo oxygen addition and subsequently dissociate ... 

Example Hydroxyl radical abstracts hydrogen from a hydrocarbon side-chain of a fatty acid to initiate lipid peroxidation... 

Step 5. The hydroxyl radicals abstract hydrogen from acetaldehyde molecules to yield water and new acetyl radicals ... 

Interfacial reactivity seems to be involved in the oxidation of hindered secondary amines (Fig. 8). 2i sonication experiments run with oxygen bubbling, hydroxyl radicals abstract hydrogen from the N-H bond, then the nitrogen-centered radical reacts with oxygen or combines with the hydroxyl radical. Subsequent steps give the stable nitroxide. 

The hydroxyl radical rapidly abstracts an H atom from a second molecule of HCIO4 to give H2O plus CIO and the 2 radicals CIO and CIO then decompose to the elements via the intermediate oxides. Above 450° the CI2 produced reacts with H2O to give 2HC1 plus whilst in the low-temperature range (150-310°) the decomposition is heterogeneous and second order in HCIO4. 

The attack on the aromatic nucleus by hydroxyl radicals is probably analogous to that by phenyl and methyl radicals, Eq. (34a,b). Evidence that the first step is the addition of hydroxyl radical to benzene, rather than abstraction of a hydrogen atom, has recently been adduced from a study of the radiolysis of water-benzene mixtures. The familiar addition complex may undergo two reactions to form the phenolic and dimeric products respectively, Eq. (34a,b). Alternative mechanisms for the formation of the dimer have been formulated, but in view of the lack of experimental evidence for any of the mechanisms further discussion of this problem is not justified. 

Hydroxy radical and sulfate radical anion, though they may sometimes give rise to similar products, show quite different selectivity in their reactions with unsaturated substrates. In particular, the sulfate radical anion has a somewhat lower propensity for hydrogen abstraction than the hydroxyl radical. For example, the sulfate radical anion shows little tendency to abstract hydrogen from mcthacrylic acid.232... 

NMHC. A large number of hydrocarbons are present in petroleum deposits, and their release during refining or use of fuels and solvents, or during the combustion of fuels, results in the presence of more than a hundred different hydrocarbons in polluted air (43,44). These unnatural hydrocarbons join the natural terpenes such as isoprene and the pinenes in their reactions with tropospheric hydroxyl radical. In saturated hydrocarbons (containing all single carbon-carbon bonds) abstraction of a hydrogen (e,g, R4) is the sole tropospheric reaction, but in unsaturated hydrocarbons HO-addition to a carbon-carbon double bond is usually the dominant reaction pathway. 

The stability of perchlorofluoroalkanes is due to the absence of hydrogen atoms that may be abstracted by reaction with hydroxyl radicals. Attention has therefore been directed to chlorofluo-roalkanes containing at least one hydrogen atom (Hayman and Derwent 1997). Considerable effort has also been directed to the reactions of chloroalkanes and chloroalkenes, and this deserves a rather more detailed examination in the light of interest in the products that are formed. 

Hydroxyl radical reacts with VOCs via either an H-atom abstraction or radical-addition mechanism (the latter is possible if the VOC is an alkene). The nascent... 

Radicals can react with bases via hydrogen atom abstraction or, more commonly, by addition to the pi bonds in the heterocyclic nucleobases (Scheme 8.1). These reactions have been extensively studied in the context of hydroxyl radical (HO ), which is generated by y-radiolysis of water. When DNA is exposed to the hydroxyl radical, approximately 80% of the reactions occur at the bases. Many base damage products arising from the reaction hydroxyl radical with DNA have been characterized (Fig. 8.2). ... 

The mechanoradical produced will react with the small amount of oxygen to form hydroperoxides these are subsequently utilised as radical generators in the second stage. The resulting hydroxyl radical (from hydroperoxide decomposition) abstracts a hydrogen from the substrate to form macroradical which, in turn, will react with more of the thiyl radical to form more bound antioxidant. The polymer bound antioxidant made in this way is very much more resistant to solvent leaching and volatilisation when compared to commercial additives (13). see Figure 2. 

This conclusion is partly true because superoxide is unable to abstract hydrogen atom even from the most active bisallylic positions of unsaturated compounds, while perhydroxyl radical abstracts H atom from linoleic, linolenic, and arachidonic fatty acids with the rate constants of 1-3 x 1031 mol-1 s-1 [24], However, the superoxide damaging activity does not originate from hydrogen atom abstraction reactions but from one-electron reduction processes, leading to the formation of hydroxyl radicals, peroxynitrite, etc, and in these reactions perhydroxyl cannot compete with superoxide. 

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