Hydroxyl radical aliphatic hydrocarbons

Tomat, R. and Rigo, A. (1985) Electrochemical oxidation of aliphatic hydrocarbons promoted by inorganic radicals. I. Hydroxyl radicals. J. Appl. Electrochem. 15, 167-173. 

S Halogenated Compounds Many halogenated compounds, either because of their extensive use or their persistence are of environmental interest. The smaller, halogenated aliphatics have been used extensively and are common ground water contaminants," while the persistence of the PCBs and chlorinated dibenzo dioxins is well documented. Hydroxyl radicals are the more important oxidants in the vapor phase and the hydrocarbon structure determines the nature of the reaction. Second-order rate constants for some of these compounds are summarized in Table 6.27. 

The hydroxyl group of alcohol weakens the a-C—H bond. Therefore, free radicals attack preferentially the a-C—H bonds of the secondary and primary alcohols. The values of bond dissociation energy (BDE) of C—H bonds in alcohols are presented in Table 7.1. The BDE values of C—H bonds of the parent hydrocarbons are also presented. It is seen from comparison that the hydroxyl group weakens BDE of the C—H bond by 23.4 kJ mol 1 for aliphatic alcohols and by 8.0 kJ mol 1 for allyl and benzyl alcohols. 

Peter Griess, 1858.—Diazo compounds were discovered and first prepared by Peter Griess in 1858. The historical method used by him is the same in general as is now used widely in dyestuff manufacture. It has already been described and consists in the action of nitrous acid on an aromatic primary amine, e.g., aniline. When this reaction takes place, at ordinary or slightly raised temperatures, the same products are obtained as with aliphatic primary amines, viz., the hydroxyl compound of the hydrocarbon radical, free nitrogen and water. 

Formation of hydroxyl quinoline must have been initiated by ionic reactions that involved and OH ions. Hydrogenation by Ha enables the heterocyclic ring to be saturated, and this can be followed by hydrogenolysis of C-N bonds that first open the hetero-ring and then convert the resultant aliphatic and aromatic amine intermediates to hydrocarbons and ammonia (24). Also direct attack of OH on quinoline may have led to formation of hydroxyl quinoline. It has been suggested that both ionic reaction and free radical capping are possible under supercritical conditions (25). 

The kinetics of the reactions of many xenobiotics with hydroxyl and nitrate radicals have been examined under simulated atmospheric conditions and include (1) aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons (Tuazon et al. 1986) and substituted monocyclic aromatic compounds (Atkinson et al. 1987c) (2) terpenes (Atkinson et al. 1985a) (3) amines (Atkinson et al. 1987a) (4) heterocyclic compounds (Atkinson et al. 1985b) and (5) chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons (Kwok et al. 1995). For PCBs (Anderson and Hites 1996), rate constants were highly dependent on the number of chlorine atoms, and calculated atmospheric lifetimes varied from 2 days for 3-chlorobiphenyl to 34 days for 2,2, 3,5, 6-pentachlorbiphenyl. It was estimated that loss by hydroxylation in the atmosphere was a primary process for removal of PCBs from the environment. It was later shown that the products were chlorinated benzoic acids produced by initial reaction with a... 

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