Radicals polarity effects

Radicals add to unsaturated bonds to form new radicals, which then undergo addition to other unsaturated bonds to generate further radicals. This reaction sequence, when it occurs iteratively, ultimately leads to the production of polymers. Yet the typical radical polymerization sequence also features the essence of radical-induced multicomponent assembling reactions, assuming, of course, that the individual steps occur in a controlled manner with respect to the sequence and the number of components. The key question then becomes how does one control radical addition reactions such that they can be useful multicomponent reactions Among the possibilities are kinetics, radical polar effects, quenching of the radicals by a one-electron transfer and an efficient radical chain system based on the judicious choice of a radical mediator. This chapter presents a variety of different answers to the question. Each example supports the view that a multicomponent coupling reaction is preferable to uncontrolled radical polymerization reactions, which can decrease the overall efficiency of the process. 

An alternative explanation is given by the classical free-radical polar effect which figures out the transition state of reaction (3) by two limit structures. The second one implies an electron transfer from the radical SOMO into the peracid 0—0 LUMO. 

Selective chlorination of the 3-position of thietane 1,1-dioxide may be a consequence of hydrogen atom abstraction by a chlorine atom. Such reactions of chlorine atoms are believed to be influenced by polar effects, preferential hydrogen abstraction occurring remotely from an electron withdrawing group. The free radical chain reaction may be propagated by attack of the 3-thietanyl 1,1-dioxide radical on molecular chlorine. 

Radical chlorination reactions show a substantial polar effect. Positions substituted by electron-withdrawing groups are relatively unreactive toward chlorination, even though the substituents may be potentially capable of stabilizing the free-radical intermediate " ... 

Similarly, carboxylic acid and ester groups tend to direct chlorination to the / and v positions, because attack at the a position is electronically disfavored. The polar effect is attributed to the fact that the chlorine atom is an electrophilic species, and the relatively electron-poor carbon atom adjacent to an electron-withdrawing group is avoided. The effect of an electron-withdrawing substituent is to decrease the electron density at the potential radical site. Because the chlorine atom is highly reactive, the reaction would be expected to have a very early transition state, and this electrostatic effect predominates over the stabilizing substituent effect on the intermediate. The substituent effect dominates the kinetic selectivity of the reaction, and the relative stability of the radical intermediate has relatively little influence. 

The above argument is also at odds with the conventional wisdom that the well-known tendency for monomer alternation in copolymerization can primarily be attributed to polar factors. It was suggested9 that, in most cases, radical stabilization could provide an alternate explanation. A discussion on the relative importance of steric polar and radical stabilization effects on radical addition appears in Section 2.3. 

Bernardi, F., Bottom, 1997, Polar Effect in Hydrogen Abstraction Reactions from Halo-Substituted Methanes by Methyl Radical A Comparison Between Hartree-Fock, Perturbation, and Density Functional Theories , J. Phys. Chem., 101, 1912. 

Finally it has to be remarked briefly that the reactivity and selectivity of free radicals is certainly not only determined by steric and bond energy effects or by the thermodynamic stability of these transients. Polar effects are also important, in particular in those reactions which have early transition states e.g., the steps of free radical chain reactions12. They are either due to dipole interactions in the ground state or to charge polarization at transition states. FMO-theory apparently offers a more modern interpretation of many of these effects13. ... 

The first step of a free radical aromatic substitution, the formation of the a-com-plex, is also an addition step. The o,m,p-product ratio therefore also responds to steric effects. This is shown for the free radical phenylation and dimethylamination of toluene and r.-butylbenzene in Table 8. The larger the substituent on the aromatic system and the bulkier the attacking radical, the more p-substitution product is obtained at the expense of o-substitution. In the phenylation reaction the yield of m-product also increases in contrast to the dimethylamination reaction. The substitution pattern of this latter reaction is, in addition to the steric effect, governed heavily by polar effects because a radical cation is the attacking species113. ... 

For cationic zeolites Richardson (79) has demonstrated that the radical concentration is a function of the electron affinity of the exchangeable cation and the ionization potential of the hydrocarbon, provided the size of the molecule does not prevent entrance into the zeolite. In a study made on mixed cationic zeolites, such as MgCuY, Richardson used the ability of zeolites to form radicals as a measure of the polarizing effect of one metal cation upon another. He subsequently developed a theory for the catalytic activity of these materials based upon this polarizing ability of various cations. It should be pointed out that infrared and ESR evidence indicate that this same polarizing ability is effective in hydrolyzing water to form acidic sites in cationic zeolites (80, 81). 

The mere exposure of diphenyl-polyenes (DPP) to medium pore acidic ZSM-5 was found to induce spontaneous ionization with radical cation formation and subsequent charge transfer to stabilize electron-hole pair. Diffuse reflectance UV-visible absorption and EPR spectroscopies provide evidence of the sorption process and point out charge separation with ultra stable electron hole pair formation. The tight fit between DPP and zeolite pore size combined with efficient polarizing effect of proton and aluminium electron trapping sites appear to be the most important factors responsible for the stabilization of charge separated state that hinder efficiently the charge recombination. 

The polar effect involved in radical addition has been repeatedly discussed in the scientific literature. The parabolic model opens up new prospects for the correct estimation of the polar effect (see Section 6.2.7). It permits one to determine the contribution of this effect to the activation energy using experimental data. This contribution (AE ) is estimated by choosing a reference reaction that involves the same reaction center but in which one or both reactants... 

Contribution of the Polar Effect Ato the Activation Energy of the Addition of Polar Radicals to Polar Monomers CH2=CRY (Calculated from the Data of Several Studies [40,51-53])... 

Another factor that influences the reactivity of two polar reactants, acylperoxyl radical with aldehyde, is the polar interaction of carbonyl group with reaction center in the transition state. Aldehydes are polar compounds, their dipole moments are higher than 2.5 Debye (see Section 8.1.1). The dipole moment of the acylperoxyl radical is about 4 Debye (/jl = 3.87 Debye for PhC(0)00 according to the quantum-chemical calculation [54]). Due to this, one can expect a strong polar effect in the reaction of peroxyl radicals with aldehydes. The IPM helps to evaluate the increment Ain the activation energy Ee of the chosen reaction using experimental data [1], The results of Acalculation are presented in Table 8.10. 

Ketone and the formed a-ketoperoxyl radical are polar molecules. Hence the polar effect influences the reactivity of the ketones and the peroxyl radicals. Polar solvents also influence the reactions of peroxyl radicals with ketones as well as other free radical reactions. 

We see that the polar effect is strong in reactions of peroxyl radicals with monoesters. It lowers the activation energy of the reaction of the peroxyl radical in most cases. This means that the geometry of atoms C H O of the TS is nonlinear. The geometric parameters of the TS of peroxyl radical reactions with C—H bonds of esters are presented in Table 9.18. 

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