Methylene, biradical

Calculations based on this second model give the observed value for the entropy of activation. In addition, this model may be used to account for the observed isotope effect (Benson and Nangia, 1963). If the tetra-methylene biradical is involved then it is to be expected that appropriately substituted cyclobutanes might undergo cis-trans isomerization reactions. This will be referred to again later. One final point should be mentioned in connection with biradical intermediates in both cyclopropane and cyclobutane reactions. This concerns the absence of any effect of radical inhibitors on these systems, when it might be expected that they would interact with the biradicals. In fact calculations show that, under the conditions of formation, the biradicals have extremely short lifetimes sec) and hence, unless radical inhibitors are... 

This suggestion is supported by the fact that there is an induction period for CO formation, as well as by the coincidence of the end of the induction period with the maximum in the allene concentration. The methylene biradical formed in step (3) may react with the ketene molecule producing CH4, as well as through a chain... 

Irradiation of 4-(3-benzoylpropionyl)-1,4-morpholine (267) yielded an epimeric mixture of 9-hydroxy-9-phenylperhydropyrido[2,l-c][l,4]oxazin-6-ones 268 and 269 via hydrogen abstraction from the position 3 of the morpholine moiety of 267 (98T2529). It was assumed that the steric hinderance between the phenyl group and the hydrogen atoms of 5-methylene group of 267 in the biradicals contributed to the observed selectivity. 

Although this mechanism could explain the inertness of di-t-butyl sulphide towards oxidation due to the absence of a-hydrogen atoms, it was later ruled out by Tezuka and coworkers They found that diphenyl sulphoxide was also formed when diphenyl sulphide was photolyzed in the presence of oxygen in methylene chloride or in benzene as a solvent. This implies that a-hydrogen is not necessary for the formation of the sulphoxide. It was proposed that a possible reactive intermediate arising from the excited complex 64 would be either a singlet oxygen, a pair of superoxide anion radical and the cation radical of sulphide 68 or zwitterionic and/or biradical species such as 69 or 70 (equation 35). 

The possibility of a biradical mechanism was suggested using the MNDO and AMI semiempirical methods, for the addition of protoanemonin (5-methylene-2(5Z/)-furanone) to butadiene105 and to several substituted dienes106. Experimental evidence for this kind of mechanism has recently been published133. A biradical mechanism has also been considered for the dimerization of butadiene96. For this reaction, CASSCF calculations... 

The most important means of consuming acetylene for lean, stoichiometric, and even slightly rich conditions is again by reaction with the biradical O [37, 39, 39a] to form a methylene radical and CO,... 

The methylene triplet adds to ethylene symmetrically through the triplet biradical directly (B). The central methylene group (formed from ethylene) is bent downwards by this process (Fig. 10). At this stage rotation or direct ring closure can occur, with loss of stereochemistry following bond formation to yield cyclopropane. The cyclo-addition of the triplet requires only a small activation energy of about 5 kcal/mole 52). 

The origin of the difference lies in the fact that triplet carbenes are biradicals (or diradicals) and exhibit chemistry similar to that exhibited by radicals, while singlet carbenes incorporate both nucleophilic and electrophilic sites, e.g., for singlet and triplet methylene. 

Bohm, the methylene free radical, —CHoCCHL—, may be produced momentarily in polyethylene by eliminating molecular hydrogen during the irradiation. This process could replace or exist in addition to that represented by Equation 1. Such a biradical (or Lewis acid) would not be expected to be stable but could revert to the vinvlene group... 

Biradicals are frequently postulated to arise as intermediates in a number of chemical reactions and unimolecular isomerizations. Sometimes there are reasonable alternative concerted mechanisms in which the intermediate (or transition-state complex) is not a biradical. Such a case of much interest37,61 involves the reactions of singlet [5] and triplet [7] methylenes with olefins. We note that the permutational symmetry does not determine whether or not a reaction is concerted rather it is determined by the shapes of the intermolecular potential surfaces.78 The lowest 1Ai methylene is expected to react by a concerted mechanism, since it correlates with the ground state of the product cyclopropane higher excited singlets need not react via a concerted mechanism. 

Figure 51. Cartoon representations of hydroxy-1,4-biradicals from 2- and sym-alkanones. The methylene chains (solid lines) are assumed to be extended and the sizes of the atoms between the odd-electron centers and the hydroxy groups are depicted as circles and filled dots, respectively.

There is a striking similarity in the behavior attributed to the triplet biradicals believed to be formed in the reactions of both triplet methylene and triplet oxygen with the 2-butenes. It should also be pointed out that in the triplet addition reactions of methylene, cis and trans olefins do not give the same cis and trans product ratios, indicating that the rate of spin inversion necessary for closure in the biradical intermediate occurs at a rate comparable to the rate of rotation about C—C bonds. 

The quenching cross section for cyclopropane is considerably smaller than those for olefins.497 However, the fact that cyclopropane-de is, if anything, a more effective quencher of triplet mercury than cyclopropane-/ 6497 favors an energy transfer process over a hydrogen abstraction process. Recently Gunning has reported that methylene-cyclobutane is the major high-pressure product in the mercury-sensitized decomposition of spiropentane.509 This result provides very compelling support for the intermediacy of a biradical species. 

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