Radical anions of aromatic hydrocarbons

In the presence of a proton source, the radical anion is protonated and further reduction occurs (the Birch reduction Part B, Section 5.5.1). In general, when no proton source is present, it is relatively difficult to add a second electron. Solutions of the radical anions of aromatic hydrocarbons can be maintained for relatively long periods in the absence of oxygen or protons. 

B. Reactions of Radical Anions of Aromatic Hydrocarbons with... 

The electrogenerated radical anions of aromatic hydrocarbons, e.g. DPA, rubrene, fluorene, can also act as reductants towards electro-chemically obtained radical cations which are derivatives of other aromatic compounds such as N,N-dimethyl-/>-phenylenediamine (Wurster s red) 150> (see Section VIII. B.). When a mixture of DPA and a halide such as 99 (DPACI2) or 100 is electrolysed, a bright chemiluminescence is observed the quantum yields are about two orders of magnitude higher than that of the DPA radical anion-radical cation reaction 153>. 

Light emission occurs during the reaction of numerous radical anions of aromatic hydrocarbons with radical cations such as Wurster s red 103, Wurster s blue 104 or radical cations derived from triarylamines of the type 105, 106. 

Photoinduced electron transfer between amines and aromatic hydrocarbons occurs to generate radical cations of amines and radical anions of aromatic hydrocarbons. Pac and Sakurai reported the photoaddition of N,N-dimethylaniline to anthracene via photoinduced electron transfer [60]. In benzene, the 4n + 4n) photocyclodimer of anthracene is produced as a sole isolable product, although an emission due to the exciplex formed from anthracene and JV,N-dimethylaniline is observed. In acetonitrile, the addition of dimethylaniline to anthracene occurs via their radical ions to give 9,10- dihydro-9-(4 -dimethylaminophenyl)anthracene as the major product. However, the photoamination on anthracene takes place even in benzene when iV-methylani-line is used as an electron donor. Sugimoto and his coworkers reported the intramolecular photoaddition of anilines to aromatic hydrocarbons to give cyclic amino compounds (Scheme 16) [61-63]. 

The photoreactions of aliphatic amines with aromatic hydrocarbons have also been reported by several groups. With tertiary amines, deprotonation occurs from the radical cations of amines at the a-carbon to generate carbon radicals which react with the radical anion of aromatic hydrocarbons. With secondary amines, deprotonation from the radical cations of amines occurs both at the a-carbon and at the nitrogen atom, so that the reaction becomes complicated [64-65]. 

Tazuke reported the carboxylation of the radical anions of aromatic hydrocarbons that are generated by photoinduced electron- transfer from the tertiary amines to the excited singlet aromatic hydrocarbons (Scheme 36) [119]. Toki and his coworkers reported the photofixation of COj with styrene using tertiary amines as electron donors [120]. Tomioka reported the photoaddition of tertiary amines to electrophilic cyclopropanes [115]. 

Indirect electrolysis using radical anions of aromatic hydrocarbons or Ni(acacen) as electron carrier has made it possible to determine the eP of some tosylamides in DMF and... 

Winkler et al. (1966) have obtained the spectra of the lithium salts of the radical-anions of aromatic hydrocarbons such as naphthalene and biphenyl by irradiating the corresponding hydrocarbon in the presence of phenyl-lithium this method has several advantages over others for generating hydrocarbon radical-anions, one being that studies may be made in a wide range of solvents. 

Figure 9. Plot of log ofLi+ salts of radical anions of aromatic hydrocarbons...

IV. Migrations of Aryl in Radical Anions of Aromatic Hydrocarbons and... 

MIGRATIONS OF ARYL IN RADICAL ANIONS OF AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS AND RELATED REACTIONS... 

Aromatic Radical Anions. Many aromatic hydrocarbons react with alkaU metals in polar aprotic solvents to form stable solutions of the corresponding radical anions as shown in equation 8 (3,20). These solutions can be analyzed by uv-visible spectroscopy and stored for further use. The unpaired electron is added to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the aromatic hydrocarbon and a... 

Photoinduced electron-transfer reaction of aromatic compounds with amines is one of the most fundamental reactions in the electron-donor-acceptor systems, which was recently reviewed by Lewis [35], Because of the low oxidation potentials of the amines, the photoinduced one-electron transfer from the amines to the excited singlet states of aromatic hydrocarbons ( Aril ) readily occurs to give the radical cations of amines and the radical anions of aromatic compounds even in the less polar solvents. 

The vibronic coupling in the radical and radical cation of aromatic hydrocarbons is studied by photoionizing the corresponding anion and neutral molecules, respectively. The vibronic Hamiltonian of the final states of the ionized species is constructed in terms of the dimensionless normal coordinates of the electronic ground state of the corresponding (reference) anion or neutral species. The mass-weighted normal coordinates ) are obtained by diagonalizing the force field and are converted into the dimensionless form by [68]... 

Radical anions of aromatic compounds are rather stable due to chaige delocalization over the system of n-bonds. The distribution of the spin density on radical anions was studied by ESR and NMR. The reaction between an alkaline metal and an aromatic hydrocarbon is reversible, and the electron transfer from the metal atom to the molecule is accompanied by the heat release. For example, the reaction... 

Allyl (27, 60, 119-125) and benzyl (26, 27, 60, 121, 125-133) radicals have been studied intensively. Other theoretical studies have concerned pentadienyl (60,124), triphenylmethyl-type radicals (27), odd polyenes and odd a,w-diphenylpolyenes (60), radicals of the benzyl and phenalenyl types (60), cyclohexadienyl and a-hydronaphthyl (134), radical ions of nonalternant hydrocarbons (11, 135), radical anions derived from nitroso- and nitrobenzene, benzonitrile, and four polycyanobenzenes (10), anilino and phenoxyl radicals (130), tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine radical cation (56), tetracyanoquinodi-methane radical anion (62), perfluoro-2,l,3-benzoselenadiazole radical anion (136), 0-protonated neutral aromatic ketyl radicals (137), benzene cation (138), benzene anion (139-141), paracyclophane radical anion (141), sulfur-containing conjugated radicals (142), nitrogen-containing violenes (143), and p-semi-quinones (17, 144, 145). Some representative results are presented in Figure 12. 

MO) with the protons in the nodal plane. The mechanism of coupling (discussed below) requires contact between the unpaired electron and the proton, an apparent impossibility for n electrons that have a nodal plane at the position of an attached proton. A third, pleasant, surprise was the ratio of the magnitudes of the two couplings, 5.01 G/1.79 G = 2.80. This ratio is remarkably close to the ratio of spin densities at the a and (3 positions, 2.62, predicted by simple Hiickel MO theory for an electron placed in the lowest unoccupied MO (LUMO) of naphthalene (see Table 2.1). This result led to Hiickel MO theory being used extensively in the semi-quantitative interpretation of ESR spectra of aromatic hydrocarbon anion and cation radicals. 

In complex organic molecules calculations of the geometry of excited states and hence predictions of chemiluminescent reactions are very difficult however, as is well known, in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons there are relatively small differences in the configurations of the ground state and the excited state. Moreover, the chemiluminescence produced by the reaction of aromatic hydrocarbon radical anions and radical cations is due to simple one-electron transfer reactions, especially in cases where both radical ions are derived from the same aromatic hydrocarbon, as in the reaction between 9.10-diphenyl anthracene radical cation and anion. More complex are radical ion chemiluminescence reactions involving radical ions of different parent compounds, such as the couple naphthalene radical anion/Wurster s blue (see Section VIII. B.). 

The simplest systems where electron-transfer chemiluminescence occurs on interaction of radical ions are radical-anion and radical-cation recombination reactions in which the radical ions are produced from the same aromatic hydrocarbon (see D, p. 128) by electrolysis this type of chemiluminescence is also called electro-chemiluminescence. The systems consisting of e.g. a radical anion of an aromatic hydrocarbon and some other electron acceptor such as Wurster s red are more complicated. Recent investigations have concentrated mainly on the energetic requirements for light production and on the primary excited species. 

A. Weller and K. Zachariasse 157-160) thoroughly investigated this radical-ion reaction, starting from the observation that the fluorescence of aromatic hydrocarbons is quenched very efficiently by electron donors such as N,N diethylaniline which results in a new, red-shifted emission in nonpolar solvents This emission was ascribed to an excited charge-transfer complex 1(ArDD(H )), designated heteroexcimer, with a dipole moment of 10D. In polar solvents, however, quenching of aromatic hydrocarbon fluorescence by diethylaniline is not accompanied by hetero-excimer emission in this case the free radical anions Ar<7> and cations D were formed. 

However, ECL was not then studied in detail until 1963 [4, 5], At this time ECL from solutions of aromatic hydrocarbons was first recorded, and mechanisms involving electron transfer between electrically generated radical anions and cations were proposed. Between the mid-1960s and late 1980s there was considerable interest in the phenomenon of ECL. More than 60 publications in the literature focused almost solely on the mechanism of ECL reactions, identi-... 

The redox properties of cyclic polysilanes are interesting because they resemble those of aromatic hydrocarbons. For instance, cyclic polysilanes can be reduced to anion radicals or oxidized to cation radicals. ESR spectra for both the cation and anion radicals indicate that the unpaired electron is fully delocalized over the ring [17,19,20]. The aromatic properties of the cyclic polysilanes are ascribed to a high energy delocalized HOMO and a relatively low energy LUMO. Because the HOMO and LUMO levels lie at similar level to those of benzene, cyclic polysilanes can serve either as electron donors or electron acceptors. 

The reduction of organic halides in the presence of aromatic hydrocarbons, the subject of detailed kinetic studies, provide rate constants for the homogeneous ET [147-150] and the follow-up reaction [151]. The theoretical basis for this kind of experiment ( homogeneous redox catalysis ) was laid by Saveant s group in a series of papers during the years 1978-80 [152-157]. Homogeneous ET also plays an important role in the protonation of anion radicals [158]. 

Cathodic reduction of aromatic hydrocarbons gives 7T-radical anions, which are possible EGBs. However, the PBs normally have low solubilities in polar aprotic solvents, relatively low reduction potentials. 

The above considerations should bear some relationship with the stereochemistry of the reaction. As indicated earlier (8ection 2 Hebert et ai, 1985), in the reaction of anthracene anion radicals with optically active 2-octyl bromide, racemization is mostly observed together with a small but distinct amount (ca. 10%) of inversion. In the context of the ET-8n2 mixed mechanism sketched above, this can be rationalized in terms of a minor contribution of the latter pathway that would not detectably affect the overall rate constant of the reaction. The weakness of the bonded interactions in the transition state derives from the relatively poor affinity of the alkyl radical for the aromatic hydrocarbon. This is consistent with the fact that in those of the radical-anthracene pairs that were not favourably oriented for the 8, 2 reaction to occur, the alkyl radical escapes from the... 

With stringent precautions to avoid the presence of water, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons show two one-electron reversible waves on cyclic voltammetry in dimethylformamide (Table 7.1). These are due to sequential one-electron additions to the lowest unoccupied molecular n-orbital [1]. Hydrocarbons with a single benzene ring are reduced at very negative potentials outside the accessible range in this solvent. Radical-anions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [2] and also alkyl benzenes [3] were first obtained by the action of alkali metals on a solution of the hydrocarbon in tetrahydrofuran. They have been well characterised by esr spectroscopy. The radical-anions form coloured solutions with absorption bands at longer wavelength than the parent hydrocarbon [4,5]. 

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