Radical sulfur-centered

The S-S linkage of disulfides and the C-S linkage of certain sulfides can undergo photoinduced homolysis. The low reactivity of the sulfur-centered radicals in addition or abstraction processes means that primary radical termination can be a complication. The disulfides may also be extremely susceptible to transfer to initiator (Ci for 88 is ca 0.5, Sections 6.2.2.2 and 9.3.2). However, these features are used to advantage when the disulfides are used as initiators in the synthesis of tel ec he lies295 or in living radical polymerizations. 96 The most common initiators in this context are the dithiuram disulfides (88) which are both thermal and photochemical initiators. The corresponding monosulfides [e.g. (89)J are thermally stable but can be used as photoinitiators. The chemistry of these initiators is discussed in more detail in Section 9.3.2. 

Certain, Y, Y-dialkyl dithioearbamates [e,g. benzyl A)/V-diethyl dithiocarbamate (14)] and xanthates have been used as photoinitiators. Photodissociation of the C-S bond of these compounds yields a reactive alkyl radical (to initiate polymerization) and a less reactive sulfur-centered radical (to undergo primary-radical termination) as shown in Scheme 9.9.30 41 4 ... 

Gilbert and coworkers18 were able to detect ESR spectra of sulfinyl radicals together with other sulfur-centered radicals during the oxidation of disulfides and thiols with a titanium(III)-peroxide couple reaction mechanisms involving sulfenic acids as intermediates have been discussed. 

As an analogous example, the behavior of sulfonium salts can be mentioned. At mercury electrodes, sulfonium salts bearing trialkyl (Colichman and Love 1953) or triaryl (Matsuo 1958) fragments can be reduced, with the formation of sulfur-centered radicals. These radicals are adsorbed on the mercury surface. After this, carboradicals are eliminated. The carboradicals capture one more electron and transform into carbanions. This is the final stage of reduction. The mercury surface cooperates with both the successive one-electron steps (Scheme 2.23 Luettringhaus and Machatzke 1964). This scheme is important for the problem of hidden adsorption, but it cannot be generalized in terms of stepwise versus concerted mechanism of dissociative electron transfer. As shown, the reduction of some sulfonium salts does follow the stepwise mechanism, but others are reduced according to the concerted mechanism (Andrieux et al. 1994). 

Radical formation in a mixed crystal system of cytosine monohydrate doped with small amounts of thiocytosine (ca. 0.5%) was investigated on order to gain insight into hole transfer in a well-defined crystalline system.31 Also of interest was whether the protonation state of the thiocytosine radical(s) was the same as that of the cystosine radical(s). Crystals were X-irradiated (ca. 30 kGy) and ESR and ENDOR spectra recorded at ca. 15 K. After irradiation, many types of free radicals were formed. Among these, the low field resonance from a sulfur centered radical (42), with g-tensor (2.132, 2.004, 2.002), was clearly visible. Radical 42 constituted approximately 10% of the total cohort of radicals formed in the crystal and is apparently the only sulfur-centred radical observed in this experiment. Six weakly coupled protons were observed, two of which are shown... 

The chemistries of nitrogen-centered and sulfur-centered radicals have been reviewed in detail (Alfassi 1997, 1999), and here only some aspects can be discussed that seem pertinent to the formation, reactions and repair of DNA radicals. 

Obviously, these sulfur-centered radical cations are good sinks for 02, and, for example, disulfide radical cations give rise to sulfoxides in a very fast reaction [reaction (53), k = 1.6 x 1010 dm3 mol1 s Bonifacic et al. 2000b]. 

Armstrong D, Chipman DM (1999) Structures of sulfur-centered radicals. In Alfassi ZB (ed) S-cen-tered radicals. Wiley, New York, pp 1-26... 

Fig. 1.7. Surface modification of 45 A Ti02 colloids with different mercapto-carboxylic acids. EPR spectra of degassed aqueous Ti02 colloids (0.3 M) illuminated with 308 nm excimer laser (a) in the presence of different surface modifiers illuminated at 77K and recorded at 8K (b) the same samples recorded at 150 K at the bottom irradiation of pure TLA acid in N20 leads to formation of sulfur centered radical dimmer of TLA.

One of the most useful and widely used applications in the synthesis of natural product derivatives relies on the efficient photoaddition of RS-H onto a double bond (a reaction known as thiol-ene coupling) [55], The reaction exploits the weakness of the S—H bond that can be cleaved homolytically under irradiation (atca. 254nm). The electrophilic sulfur-centered radical attacks a nucleophilic double bond, thus starting a radical chain reaction. 

A number of sulfur-centered radical scavengers have been employed for Meerwein type carbothiolation reactions [109, 110]. The most prominent of those are certainly xanthates [111-113] and thiocyanates, among which the latter have received special attention recently. As shown in Scheme 21, thiocyanates are well-suited for the functionalization of activated and non-activated alkenes [114, 115]. Remarkably, the reaction of 56 with 2-methallyl chloride to give 57 is not significantly impeded by the possible (3-fragmentation of a chlorine radical, which would lead to allylation products [116]. With an activated and a non-activated alkene present in a substrate... 

Free radical rearrangements 6 Nitrogen-centered radicals 7 Nitroxyl radicals 7 Aryloxy radicals 8 Sulfur-centered radicals 8 Ketyl radicals 9 Radical cations and anions 10... 

Radiation chemistry, and pulse radiolysis in particular, is now a mature subject that is available as a very valuable and a powerful tool by which fundamental problems in free radical reaction mechanisms can be addressed. This chapter is restricted to studies concerning sulfur-centered radicals and radical-ions performed by radiation chemistry techniques in the first eight years of XXI century (2001-2008). SuMur-centered radicals represent a very interesting class of radicals since they exhibit very interesting redox chemistry, including biological redox processes, and different spectral and kinetic properties as... 

The chapter is divided into four main parts Sec. 2 Thiols , Sec. 3 Thioethers , Sec. 4 Disulfides , and Sec. 5 Sulfoxides and Sulfonyls . They describe how sophisticated radiation-chemical techniques have been applied to address the role of sulfur-free radicals derived from these three classes of sulfur-containing compounds, in particular, in the biological environment. Important outputs from these studies are new directions for improving our knowledge of how sulfur-centered radicals interact with major cellular targets during oxidative stress, i.e. proteins, DNA, and lipids. 

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