Radicals, reactivity with alkenes

Simple alkyl radicals such as methyl are considered to be nonnucleophilic. Methyl radicals are somewhat more reactive toward alkenes bearing electron-withdrawing substituents than towards those with electron-releasing substituents. However, much of this effect can be attributed to the stabilizing effect that these substiments have on the product radical. There is a strong correlation of reaction rate with the overall exothermicity of the reaction. Hydroxymethyl and 2-hydroxy-2-propyl radicals show nucleophilic character. The hydroxymethyl radical shows a slightly enhanced reactivity toward acrylonitrile and acrolein, but a sharply decreased reactivity toward ethyl vinyl ether. Table 12.9 gives some of the reactivity data. 

As an example, the propagation steps for the reductive alkylation of alkenes are shown in Scheme 7.1. For an efficient chain process, it is important (i) that the RjSi radical reacts faster with RZ (the precursor of radical R ) than with the alkene, and (ii) that the alkyl radical reacts faster with the alkene (to form the adduct radical) than with the silicon hydride. In other words, the intermediates must be disciplined, a term introduced by D. H. R. Barton to indicate the control of radical reactivity [5]. Therefore, a synthetic plan must include the task of considering kinetic data or substituent influence on the selectivity of radicals. The reader should note that the hydrogen donation step controls the radical sequence and that the concentration of silicon hydride often serves as the variable by which the product distribution can be influenced. 

Radical additions to alkenes and aromatic systems are well known reactions. The trapping in this manner of radicals obtained by reduction of the aliphatic carbonyl function has proved to be a versatile electrochemical route for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. Such reactions are most frequently carried out in protic solvents so that the reactive species is a o-radical formed by protonation of the carbonyl radical-anion. Tlie cyclization step must be fast in order to compete with further reduction of the radical to a carbanion at the electrode surface followed by protonation. Cyclization can be favoured and further reduction disfavoured by a... 

In fact, additions of tributylgermyl radical and tributyltin radical to activated alkenes occur at about the same rate (see refs, 38 and 101). This addition reaction is probably more readily reversible in the case of tin (because a weaker bond is formed) and therefore hydrostannylation is a less serious problem than hydrogermylation. Thus, very reactive precursors (preferably iodides) are required as precursors if germanium hydride is used with an electron deficient alkene but this is not because the germanium radical is less reactive towards halides than the tin radical. 

The structure of diphosphallenic radical cations, generated from the allene ArP=C=PAr by electrochemical oxidation, has been examined using EPR spectroscopy. Ab initio calculations including correlation effects at the MP2 and MCSCF levels have determined that two rotamers exist compatible with Jahn-Teller distortion of the allene.146 Anodically generated radical cations of alkyl phosphites [(RO P] and silylphosphites [(RO)2POSiMe3] reacted with alkenes by initial attack at the C=C bond followed by electron transfer, deprotonation, and elimination of an alkyl or trimethylsilyl cation to form identical alkyl phosphate adducts.147 The electron ionization-induced McLafferty rearrangement of n-hexylphosphine afford the a-distonic radical cation CTEPH, the distinct reactivity of which suggests there is no... 

This method has been applied also to mannosyl bromide and galactosyl bromide.4 Because alkoxyalkyl radicals are nucleophilic radicals, only alkenes with electron-withdrawing substituents can be usedJ The 1,5-anhydroglycitol side product 11 Is formed in amounts that increase with the decreasing reactivity of alkene 4. 

The rate constants of the reaction of 2,6-dimethyloct-7-en-2-ol separately with ozone and hydroxyl radical, in the gas phase, have been determined. The OH radical can either abstract hydrogen or add to the double bond. Ozone adds to the double bond. The formation of acetone, 2-methylpropanal, 2-methylbutanal, ethanedial, and 2-oxopropanal was discussed.191 The rate laws and activation parameters for the ozone oxidation of alcohols in aqueous solution have been determined and explained on the basis of formation of an ozone-alcohol complex.192 The reactivity of alkenes towards ozone, in aqueous solution, correlates well with Taft s equation.193... 

Kinetics is used to investigate mechanisms of radical additions to alkenes. Outside the solvent cage, the initiator-derived radicals may undergo the desired bimolecular reaction with the substrate, or side reactions. When the substrate is an alkene, the exothermic intermolecular addition of the reactive radical (R ) to the double bond results in the formation of two new single carbon-carbon bonds in place of the double bond. This reaction represents conversion of an initiator into a propagating radical in radical polymerisations, and is becoming increasingly important in a number of synthetically useful intermolecular small molecule reactions. The addition of R to monosubstituted and 1,1-disubstituted alkenes is nearly always at the unsubstituted carbon atom (tail addition), and thus is normally not affected by the individual steric demand of the alkene substituents. Equation 10.4 is the expression for the rate of addition (R ) of R to an alkene where [M] is the monomeric alkene concentration ... 

There has been considerable effort directed towards obtaining a fundamental understanding of the factors that govern the reactivities of carbon-centered radicals in bimolecular reactions, particularly with respect to their addition to alkenes [84]. From early liquid and gas phase studies, reactivity in such addition reactions was concluded to derive from a complex interplay of polar, steric, and bond-strength terms [85], which is much influenced by the nature and position of substituents on both the radical and the alkene. 

In recent years, direct, time-resolved methods have been extensively employed to obtain absolute kinetic data for a wide variety of alkyl radical reactions in the liquid phase, and there is presently a considerable body of data available for alkene addition reactions of a wide variety of radical types [104]. For example, rates of alkene addition reactions of the nucleophilic ferf-butyl radical (with its high-lying SOMO) have been found to correlate with alkene electron affinities (EAs), which provide a measure of the alkene s LUMO energies [105,106]. The data indicate that the reactivity of such nucleophilic radicals is best understood as deriving from a dominant SOMO-LUMO interaction, leading to charge transfer interactions which stabilize the early transition state and lower both the enthalpic and entropic barriers to reaction, with consequent rate increase. A similar recent study of the methyl radical indicated that it also had nucleophilic character, but its nucleophilic behavior is weaker than that expressed by other alkyl radicals [107]. 

The overall reactivities of these radicals in their ummolecular 5-hexenyl cyclization processes reflects those same factors which affect the reactivity of partially-fluorinated radicals in their bimolecular addition reactions with alkenes, such as styrene. Table 17 indicates this clearly, and it also reflects the general leveling effect which would be expected for the more facile unimolecular cyclization processes which have log A s about 1-2 units larger than those for the bimolecular additions. 

Undecylenic acid has also been shown to react with the surface preferentially at the alkene end, leaving the terminal carboxylic acid group free for further reaction [53], This result was somewhat unexpected as the Si-H sites are considered to be somewhat acidic and the oxophilic nature of silicon should thermodynamically favor reaction with the hydroxyl group of the acid. The preferential reactivity with the alkenyl end is consistent with a free radical, rather than a nucleophilic mechanism. The acid function can be activated with N-hydroxy succinimide (NHS) to facilitate coupling with amine tagged molecules. Schematically,... 

The addition of alkyl radicals to alkenes is important for C-C bond formation. A tert-butyl radical, a typical nucleophilic radical, reacts with acrylonitrile taking a rate constant of 2.4 X 106 M-1 s-1 (27 °C), through a SOMO-LUMO interaction. However, it reacts with 1-methylcyclohexene, an electron-rich alkene, taking a rate constant of 7.4 X 102M-1 s-1 (21 °C). On the other hand, the diethyl malonyl radical, a typical electrophilic radical, shows the opposite reactivity [66-71]. Similarly, the rate constant for the reaction of nucleophilic C2H5 and cyclohexene is2X 102 M 1 s 1, while that of electrophilic C3F7 with cyclohexene is 6.2 X 105 M-1 s 1. 

Ce4+ can be also used for the same type of reaction, since it is a strong one-electron oxidant. Generation of sp2 carbon-centered radicals such as aryl radicals, is not so easy, except for the reactions of aryl halides with Bu3SnH or Ph4Si2H2. However, treatment of arylhydrazines with Cu2+ generates aryl radicals through the initial oxidation to the arenediazonium ion with Cu2+, and subsequent SET from Cu+. Aryl radicals are much more reactive than alkyl radicals, and rapidly react with alkenes or imines as shown below (eq. 4.22) [60-63]. 

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