Phenalenyl radical formation

Scheme HI. Formation of the phenalenyl radical during pyrolysis of acenaphthylene and dihydronaphthalene.

Examples of monocation dimer formation among aromatic hydrocarbons have been confined mostly to alternant hydrocarbons, and the dimer can be regarded as an association of two closed shell molecules which have lost an electron. Recently Paskovich and Reddoch (1972) made a new class of monocation dimers, in which an electron is missing from two associated open shell molecules. Oxidation of phenalene by oxygen led to the phenalenyl radical and, it is thought, to the phenalenyl cation, association of which gave the monocation dimer (93). 

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