Oxygen atom transfer peroxynitrous acid

Peroxynitrous acid, which has an estimated lifetime of 1-3 s at neutral pH, has been studied through ab initio calculations that suggest that peroxynitrous acid, per-oxyformic acid, and dimethyldioxirane have, despite diverse 0—0 bond energies, similar activation energies for oxygen-atom transfer." The transition-state structures for the epoxidation of ethene and propene with peroxynitrous acid are symmetrical with equal or almost equal bond distances between the spiro oxygen and the carbons of the double bond. 

For practical reasons the two-electron oxidations of such prototypical substrates as alkenes, sulfides, amines and phosphines with peroxynitrous acid have been smdied since this type of oxygen atom transfer reaction is similar to the corresponding oxidations with peroxyformic acid, where both experimental and computational data are available The oxidative reactions (equations 3-6) of these key substrates can... 

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