Reactions between Atoms, Radicals and Unsaturated Molecules

3 Reactions between Atoms Radicals and Unsaturated Molecules 

The decomposition of many energy-rich hydrocarbon radicals formed by interaction of hydrogen atoms with olefins has been studied [392]. 

Processes of this kind have been discussed in Chapter VI in connection with the chemical activation method. 

23 Bimolecular Reaction Rates as a Function of Molecular Structure 

Since a century ago Butlerov formulated the idea of the relation between reactivities of compounds and their structure, a huge amount of experimental results obtained for various compounds and reaction classes and corroborating Butlerov s ideas has been accumulated. Attempts to generalize these results and to provide theoretical interpretation of the rules observed experimentally in terms of electrostatic concepts were made by van t Hoff, Ostwald, J. Thompson, Kassel, and later on by Pauling, Coulson and others in terms of the quantum theory of atomic and molecular structure. These attemps resulted in the partial theoretical interpretation of certain problems connected with the relationship between the reactivities and structures of chemical compounds [19, 20, 105, 106, 107, 148, 149, 408, 525]. However, on the whole, the problem is far from being solved. 

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