Isobutyronitrile radical

Such reactions can be initiated by free radicals, derived from compounds (initiators) such as benzoyl peroxide, ammonium persulphate or azobis-isobutyronitrile or by ionic mechanisms... 

The propensity of nitriles to release cyanide subsequent to metaboHsm is the basis of their acute toxicity. Nitriles that form tertiary radicals at their alpha carbon atoms (eg, isobutyronitrile, 2-methylbutyronitrile) are substantially more acutely lethal than nitriles that form secondary radicals at their alpha carbons (eg, butyronitrile, propionitnle). Cyanohydrins are acutely toxic because they are unstable and release cyanide quickly. Alpha-aminonitriles are also acutely toxic, presumably by analogy with cyanohydrins. 

The initiation stage may be activated by free-radical or ionic systems. In the following example a free-radical system will be discussed. In this case a material which can be made to decompose into free radicals on warming, or in the presence of a promoter or by irradiation with ultraviolet light, is added to the monomer and radicals are formed. Two examples of such materials are benzoyl peroxide and azodi-isobutyronitrile, which decompose as indicated in Figure 2.13. 

Free-radical polymerisation techniques involving peroxides or azodi-isobutyronitrile at temperatures up to about 100°C are employed commercially. The presence of oxygen in the system will affect the rate of reaction and the nature of the products, owing to the formation of methacrylate peroxides in a side reaction. It is therefore common practice to polymerise in the absence of oxygen, either by bulk polymerisation in a full cell or chamber or by blanketing the monomer with an inert gas. 

Azo compounds having functional groups that stabilize the radical products are especially reactive. The stabilizing effect of the cyano substituent is responsible for the easy decomposition of azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN), which is frequently used as a radical initiator. 

In order to induce the free-radical chain reaction, a starter compound such as dibenzoyl diperoxide, azo-Zj -(isobutyronitrile) or tcrt-butyl hydroperoxide or UV-light is used. The commercially available, technical grade N-bromosuccinimide contains traces of bromine, and therefore is of slight red-brown color. Since a small amount of elemental bromine is necessary for the radical... 

The polymerization of vinyl monomers on the surface of silica can be induced also by free radical initiators such as azo-bis-isobutyronitrile (AIBN), di-tert-butylperoxide, benzoyl peroxide etc. The selection of initiator type and method of its introduction in polymerizable systems are determined by the nature of monomers and tasks of investigations. Usually, the following procedures are used ... 

The oxidative dimerization of the anion of methyl phenyl sulfone (from a Grignard reagent) in ethereal solution in the presence of cupric chloride in 5% yield has been reported47. Despite the reported48 poor stability of the a-sulfonyl C-centered radicals, Julia and coworkers49 provoked the dimerization (in 13 to 56% yields) of the lithiated carbanion of alkyl phenyl sulfones using cupric salts as oxidants. The best results are obtained with cupric triflates in THF-isobutyronitrile medium (56% yield for R = H). For allyl phenyl sulfones the coupling in the 3-3 mode is predominant. 

It is convenient to refer here to the addition of free radicals, in this case generated from azo-bis-isobutyronitrile, to nitrones and nitroso-compounds. 1 2-Adducts are formed, as shown in equations (43) and... 

The rate of copolymerization in a binary system depends not only on the rates of the four propagation steps but also on the rates of initiation and termination reactions. To simplify matters the rate of initiation may be made independent of the monomer composition by choosing an initiator which releases primary radicals that combine efficiently with either monomer. The spontaneous decomposition rate of the initiator should be substantially independent of the reaction medium, as otherwise the rate of initiation may vary with the monomer composition. 2-Azo-bis-isobutyronitrile meets these requirements satisfactorily. The rate Ri of initiation of chain radicals of both types Ml and M2 is then fixed and equal to 2//Cd[7], or twice the rate of decomposition of the initiator I if the efficiency / is equal to unity (see Chap. IV). The relative proportion of the two types of chain radicals created at the initiation step is of no real importance, for they wall be converted one into the other by the two cross-propagation reactions of the set (1). Melville, Noble, and Watson presented the first complete theory of copolymerization suitable for handling the problem of the rate. The theory was reduced to a more concise form by Walling, whose procedure is followed here. 

Products that are likely to form free radicals also start a very violent polymerisation if the mixture is made in uncontrolied conditions. Primers are usually tert-butyl or benzoyl peroxide or azobis-isobutyronitrile. 

To conclusively disprove the involvement of the chromanol methide radical, the reaction of a-tocopherol with dibenzoyl peroxide was conducted in the presence of a large excess of ethyl vinyl ether used as a solvent component. If 5a-a-tocopheryl benzoate (11) was formed homolytically according to Fig. 6.6, the presence of ethyl vinyl ether should have no large influence on the product distribution. However, if (11) was formed heterolytically according to Fig. 6.9, the intermediate o-QM 3 would be readily trapped by ethyl vinyl ether in a hetero-Diels-Alder process with inverse electron demand,27 thus drastically reducing the amount of 11 formed. Exactly the latter outcome was observed experimentally. In fact, using a 10-fold excess of ethyl vinyl ether relative to a-tocopherol and azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) as radical... 

Skinner, W. A. Vitamin E oxidation with free radical initiators Azobis(isobutyronitrile). Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commurt. 1964, 15, 469 472. 

Attempts to promote radical reactions by adding azobis-isobutyronitrile to HMDS polymerizations gave no marked effect. 

In this section, we review the properties of a series of PNIPAM-b-PEO copolymers with PEO blocks of varying length, with respect to the PNIPAM block. Key features of their solutions will be compared with those of PNIPAM-g-PEO solutions. PNIPAM-b-PEO copolymers were prepared by free-radical polymerisation of NIPAM initiated by macroazoinitiators having PEO chains linked symmetrically at each end of a 2,2/-azobis(isobutyronitrile) derivative [169,170]. The polydispersities of PEOs were low, enabling calculations of the number-average molar mass for each PNIPAM block from analysis of their H-NMR spectra (Table 2). 

Szwarc (99) found a great affinity for methyl radicals in carbon black. Donnet and co-workers [58, 100, 101) determined the concentration of free radicals on carbon black surfaces by the fixation of the radicals of isobutyronitrile, 3,5-dichlorobenzoyl peroxide, and lauroyl peroxide. The number of radicals bound by the surface coincided satisfactorily with the number of unpaired electrons determined by e.s.r. 

The reaction with the isobutyronitrile radical proved to be most... 

From difference in fixation of isobutyronitrile radical and isobutyronitrile. 

However, quinones are powerful acceptors for free radicals, too. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the quinone content by other reactions, for instance with isobutyronitrile (see below). Besides, this check is necessary because isobutyronitrile is always present in solutions of its radical. The difference in the nitrogen content after reaction with isobutyronitrile and with isobutyronitrile radical is attributed by Donnet to the free radicals in the carbon surface. Table X shows that after reaction wdth isobutyronitrile radical very nearly twice the amount of nitrogen was found than after reaction with isobutyronitrile. 

Semitelechelic HPMA polymers were synthesized by free radical polymerization of HPMA using 2,2 -azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) as the initiator and alkyl mercaptans as chain transfer agents. Alkyl mercaptans with different functional groups, namely, 2-mercaptoethylamine, 3-mercapto-propionic acid, 3-mercaptopropionic hydrazide, and methyl 3-mercapto-propionate, were used as the chain transfer agents ST HPMA polymers... 

The free radical polymerization of HPMA in the presence of mercaptans involves two different initiation mechanisms (Scheme 2) [26]. One is the initiation by RS radicals from chain transfer agent the other appears to be the direct initiation by the primary isobutyronitrile (IBN) radicals formed by the decomposition of AIBN [27]. The RS are formed by either the free radical transfer reaction of alkyl mercaptans with the IBN radicals or the chain transfer reaction of an active polymer chain with the mercaptans. The initiation by the RS radicals produces the ST polymers with a functional group at one end of the polymer chain. The initiation by IBN radicals leads to nonfunctional polymer chains with an IBN end group. The presence of the polymers with IBN end groups effects the purity and the functionality of ST polymers. As expected, the production of nonfunctionalized polymer chains is affected by reaction conditions. The polymerization is mainly terminated by chain transfer reaction with the mercaptans, but other termination mechanisms, such as disproportionation and recombination, take place depending on the reaction conditions [26]. 

A minor reaction of 2-cyano-2-propyl radicals is disproportionation to methacrylonitrile and isobutyronitrile [Moad et al., 1984 Starnes et al., 1984]. This presents a complication for polymerizations carried out to high conversions where the methacrylonitrile concentration is significant since methacrylonitrile undergoes copolymerization with many monomers. 

For perhaps a century, the primary interest in azo compounds has been in dye chemistry. Recently, aliphatic azo compounds, which are thermally less stable than their aromatic counterpart, have enjoyed attention as sources of free radicals for polymerization reactions. In this regard, an initiator such as a,a -azobis(isobutyronitrile) is important for two reasons ... 

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