Radical clock, kinetic studies

Radical Clock Kinetic Studies - Practical Aspects 321... 

A major source of error in any indirect method is inaccuracy of the basis rate constants. Errors can result from determinations of rate constants by a sequence of several indirect studies or by an unanticipated solvent effect on the kinetics of a basis reaction. An error can also result in calibration of a radical clock if the requisite assumption that the clock radical will react with a rate constant equal to that of a simple model radical is not correct. Nevertheless, indirect methods in general, and radical clock studies in particular, have been the workhorse of radical kinetic determinations. 

LFP-Clock Method. In this method, rate constants for the radical clock reactions are measured directly by LFP, and the clocks are used in conventional competition kinetic studies for the determination of second-order rate constants. The advantages are that the clock can be calibrated with good accuracy and precision in the solvent of interest, and light-absorbing reagents can be studied in the competition reactions. The method is especially useful when limited kinetic information is available for a class of radicals. 

Table II. Most of the data was obtained from radical clock studies. The neophyl radical rearrangement24 [Eq. (2)] was used for the majority of the kinetic data in Table II, but the ring expansion rearrangement reactions25-27 of radicals 7 and 8, cyclizations of 5-hexenyl type radicals,...

The kinetic data for these reactions are numerous, as shown in Table VI. Most of values were obtained by radical clock methods. The ring expansion of radical 7 has been employed as the clock in a study that provided much of the data in Table VI.74 Cyclizations of 5-hexenyl-type radicals also have been used as clocks,75-77 and other competition reactions have been used.78 Hydrogen atom abstraction from n-Bu3GeH by primary alkyl radicals containing a trimethylsilyl group in the a-, >8-, or y-position were obtained by the indirect method in competition with alkyl radical recombi-... 

Rate constants for reactions of Bu3SnH with some a-substituted carbon-centered radicals have been determined. These values were obtained by initially calibrating a substituted radical clock on an absolute kinetic scale and then using the clock in competition kinetic studies with Bu3SnH. Radical clocks 24 and 25 were calibrated by kinetic ESR spectroscopy,88 whereas rate constants for clocks 26-31 were measured directly by LFP.19,89 90 For one case, reaction of Bu3SnH with radical 29, a rate constant was measured directly by LFP using the cyclization of 29 as the probe reaction.19... 

Radical clock competition kinetic studies of reactions of Bu3SnH with acyl radicals have been reported. Relative rate constants for reactions of... 

Cyclizations of amidyl radicals have been studied both synthetically and kinetically. A detailed study on the rates of a variety of amidyl radical reactions was determined by both LFP and indirect competition methods (Table l) In addition, the rate constants for reactions with BusSnH and PhSH were also reported (thus giving a range of simple amidyl radical clocks). The results obtained will be useful in synthetic sequenceplanning involving amidyl radicals. 

The kinetic data for the reaction of primary alkyl radicals (RCH2 ) with a variety of silanes are numerous and were obtained by applying the free-radical clock methodology. The term free-radical clock or timing device is used to describe a unimolecular radical reaction in a competitive study [2-4]. Three types of unimolecular reactions are used as clocks for the determination of rate constants for this class of reactions. The neophyl radical rearrangement (Reaction 3.1) has been used for the majority of the kinetic data, but the ring expansion rearrangement (Reaction 3.2) and the cyclization of 5-hexenyl radical (Reaction 3.3) have also been employed. 

Liu, K. E., Johnson, C. C., Newcomb, M., and Lippard, S. J., 1993, Radical clock substrate probes and kinetic isotope effect studies of the hydroxylation of hydrocarbons by methane monooxygenase, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115 939n947. 

In addition to their role in kinetics, radical clocks also serve an important mechanistic function in that the formation of the rearranged product provides evidence for radical involvement in the first place. The incorporation of a ring-opening probe into the substrate, followed by product analysis—specifically, a search for rearranged product—has been used in mechanistic studies of the action of some enzymes, such as cyt P450 [61] and methane monooxygenase [62]. 

The term radical clock is used to describe a unimolecular radical reaction that is kinetically calibrated and, thus, can be applied in a competition study to time a particular radical reaction of interest [1], Such kinetic information is necessary for mechanistic studies where a radical might be formed as a transient. It is also important for synthetic applications because most radical-based methods involve chain reactions that commonly have several competing reaction steps with absolute kinetic values available, one can calculate the concentrations of reagents necessary for a high-yield synthetic conversion. Because lifetimes of simple radicals are usually in the microsecond range, direct kinetic measurements require sophisticated instrumentation. Radical clocks provide an inexpensive alternative for kinetic studies because the rate constants for the competing reactions are determined from the product mixtures present at the end of the reaction, usually with common organic laboratory instruments. 

Figure 2 shows an idealized set of data for a radical clock study in which the clock reaction is reversible. The positive intercept is the indication of reversibility in the clock reaction. In this case, the rate constant for the forward reaction ( r) is twice as great as that for the reverse reaction (k R). The slope of the line from multiple experiments, shown as a solid line, will give an accurate ratio of rate constants (kTi/ka) = 5 M in this example. If a single experiment had been conducted at 0.2 M concentration of trapping agent, however, a line with an assumed intercept of zero would result in a considerable kinetic error. The result, shown as a dashed line in Fig. 2, gives an apparent value of (kn/kR) = 7.5 M . ... 

The evolution of kinetic scales has been highly dependent on radical clock and, more generally, indirect competition kinetic studies [6], These types of studies provide ratios of rate constants as discussed above. One can build an extensive series of relative rate constants for unimolecular clocks and bimolecular reactions, and the relative rate constants often are determined with very good to excellent precision. At some point, however, absolute rate constants are necessary to provide real values for the entire kinetic scale. These absolute kinetic values are the major source of error in the kinetics, but the absolute values are becoming more precise and, one certainly hopes, more accurate as increasingly refined techniques are introduced and multiple methods are applied in studies of specific reactions. 

When the probe reaction being calibrated is a unimolecular process, one measures the rate constant of a radical clock directly for the initial absolute kinetic values, and, thus, the method is inverted in approach from that used for alkyl radical kinetics. LFP studies of unimolecular process give more precise data than those of bimolecular processes, and the approach typically starts with inherently good kinetic data. The synthetic efforts necessary for production of appropriate radical precursors are a drawback to this method, but it is, nonetheless, useful for establishing absolute kinetics for some classes of radicals where little kinetic information was available, such as nitrogen-centered radicals discussed later. 

Some primary alkyl radical clocks are collected in Table 1. These examples demonstrate the wide range of kinetics that can be studied with radical clocks, but other classes of clocks are not nearly as well developed. Radical 1-1 was calibrated by kinetic ESR methods [2], and radical 1-9 was calibrated direetly by LFP [3]. All of the others [3, 17, 20-28] were calibrated by indirect methods. 

Most alkyl radical clocks with rate eonstants smaller than 1 x 10 s at ambient temperatures are ultimately calibrated against LFP-determined BuaSnH trapping kinetics [17, 29] this includes cases where the second-order competition studies were performed with tra-(trimethylsilyl)silane, (Me3Si)3SiH, because rate constants for alkyl radical reactions with the silane were determined via clocks that were eali-brated against tin hydride [30]. The rate constants for radical 1-10 depend on multiple methods, those for 1-11 depend on nitroxyl trapping kinetics, and those for... 

Limited examples of substituted alkyl radical clocks are available. Fortunately, some calibrated clocks that are available have rate constants in the middle ranges for radical reactions and should be useful in a number of applications. Examples of clocks based on the 5-exo cyclization of the 5-hexenyl radical are shown in Table 2. The data for the series of radicals 2-1 and 2-2 [17, 32, 34, 35] are from indirect studies, whereas the data for radicals 2-3 and 2-4 [3, 35-38] are from direct LFP studies. The striking feature in these values is the apparent absence of electronic effects on the kinetics as deduced from the consistent values found for secondary radicals in the series 2-1 and 2-3. The dramatic reduction in rate constants for the tertiary radical counterparts that contain the conjugating ester, amide and nitrile groups must, therefore, be due to steric effects. It is likely that these groups enforce planarity at the radical center, and the radicals suffer a considerable energy penalty for pyramidalization that would relieve steric compression in the transition states for cyclization. 

The availability of radical clocks for -hybridized carbon systems has been limited by the high reactivity of phenyl and vinyl radicals and by the lack of appropriate methods for preparation of these radicals for direct kinetic studies. Competition kinetic studies have given relative rate constants for some radical clocks in this group, but absolute rate constants for the radical-trapping reactions used in the competitions are not generally available. In that regard, one should note that reported rate constants for reactions of BuySnH with the phenyl and 2,2-dimethylvinyl radicals [29] were later vitiated when it was found that these radicals had not been produced cleanly. 

Further evidence to exclude the triplet radical pathway includes the use of cyclopropyl substrates, which serve as a radical clock. In all cases, the reaction proceeds with no indication of ring fragmentation. The nature of the transition state of the C—H insertion step has been analyzed, via a Hammett study of the intermo-lecular C—H amination with p-substituted benzenes. A negative q value of 0.73 is obtained for the intermolecular reaction with trichloroethylsulfamate [71]. Such data indicate that there is a small, but significant, preference for electron-rich substrates, thus the resonance does contribute to the stabilization of a partial positive charge at the insertion carbon in the transition state. A kinetic isotope value of 1.9 is observed for competitive intramolecular C—H amination with a deuterated substrate (Eq. (5.21)). 

In their seminal paper on the rhodium(ll)-catalyzed C—H insertion with PhI=NNs, the group of Muller reached the conclusion that the reaction proceeds through the concerted asynchronous insertion of a rhodium-bound nitrene species.This hypothesis was supported by a Hammett analysis (/9= —0.90 vs. tr+), the absence of ring-opened products in reactions involving cyclopropyl radical clocks, and the stereospecific C(sp )—H ami-nation of (Ji)-2-phenylbutane that occurs with complete retention of configuration. However, the very low yields obtained for these test reactions as well as the kinetic isotope effect measured for the reaction from (1,3-D2)-adamantane (KIE = 3.5 0.2) put this conclusion into question as these did not rule out the possible involvement of radicals that could undergo fast recombination. Nevertheless, this initial study already highlighted the discrepancies that could be observed between the carbene and nitrene chemistries in terms of mechanism. The electronic structure of nitrenes, contrary... 

The results uncovered by Muller have been corroborated by the subsequent studies from the Du Bois group, particularly with respect to the intramolecular reaction. The stereospecific C(sp )—H insertion of the carbamate-derived nitrene depicted in Scheme 6A was the first relevant reaction in favor of the asynchronous concerted addition.More significantly, the extensive analysis of the rhodium-catalyzed intramolecular C(sp )-H amination of sulfamates has led to the same conclusion. The Hammett analysis (/0= —0.55 vs. and the kinetic isotope effect observed from the monodeuterated phenylpropyl sulfamate 9 (KIE = 2.6 0.2) clearly argue in favor of this mechanistic scenario (Scheme 17). Additionally, the reaction from the cyclopropyl radical clock 12 supports this hypothesis by furnishing a single product isolated with an excellent yield of 91%. 

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