Radicals reactivity with aliphatic substrates

Hydrogen atoms and hydroxyl radicals react with aliphatic compounds mainly by H-abstraction from the chain, although reactions with certain substituents are also important. With hydrated electrons the functioned group is the only site of reaction and its nature determines the reactivity. The reactions of hydrated electrons are by definition electron transfer reactions. The rate of reaction of a certain substrate will depend on its ability to accommodate an additional electron. For example, in an unsaturated compound the rate may depend on the presence of a site with a partial positive charge. Thus acrylonitrile and benzonitrile are three orders of magnitude more reactive toward e q than are ethylene and benzene. On the other hand, this large difference does not exist in the case of addition of H and OH. 

Most studies of aliphatic reactivity have been made with hydrogen as the leaving atom and chlorine atoms as the abstracting species.36 In these reactions, every hydrogen in the substrate is potentially replaceable and mixtures are usually obtained. However, the abstracting radical is not totally unselective, and some positions on a molecule lose hydrogen more easily than others. We discuss the position of attack under several headings 37... 

Such a simple mechanistic proposal accomodated the observation that highly activated, benzylic alcohols were good substrates due to the enhanced lability of their a-hydrogen atoms. In contrast, aliphatic alcohols are far less reactive towards H-radical abstraction and, accordingly, poor conversions should ensue. However, it was rather disturbing to note that allylic alcohols, such as geraniol and nerol, displayed poor reactivity in this system. Furthermore, it was observed that the aerobic oxidation of aliphatic alcohols invariably resulted in the rapid formation of a green copper(II) salt, with concomitant deactivation of the catalyst. 

The reactions catalyzed by laccases proceed by the monoelectronic oxidation of a suitable substrate molecule (phenols and aromatic or aliphatic amines) to the corresponding reactive radical (Riva, 2006). The redox process takes place with the assistance of a cluster of four copper atoms that form the catalytic core of the enzyme they also confer the typical blue color to these enzymes because of the intense electronic absorption of the Cu-Cu linkages (Piontek et al., 2002). The overall outcome of the catalytic cycle is the reduction of one molecule of oxygen to two molecules of water and the concomitant oxidation of four substrate molecules to produce four... 

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