The Hydroxyl Radical

The importance of OH radical reactions in tissues is that they are so reactive that they tend to react with the first bio-molecule that they encounter. They react mainly by H-atom extraction or by addition to double bonds. 

The pKa of OH is close to that of water, so O ions are unlikely to be of biological importance. The OH radical has a high electron- 

We conclude that, although the OH radical is the most reactive of the oxygen radicals , it may not be as dangerous as, say, 02 -, because of the speed and indiscriminate nature of its reactions. Only when it is generated very close to its target is it expected to be important. 

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Only 20—40% of the HNO is converted ia the reactor to nitroparaffins. The remaining HNO produces mainly nitrogen oxides (and mainly NO) and acts primarily as an oxidising agent. Conversions of HNO to nitroparaffins are up to about 20% when methane is nitrated. Conversions are, however, often ia the 36—40% range for nitrations of propane and / -butane. These differences ia HNO conversions are explained by the types of C—H bonds ia the paraffins. Only primary C—H bonds exist ia methane and ethane. In propane and / -butane, both primary and secondary C—H bonds exist. Secondary C—H bonds are considerably weaker than primary C—H bonds. The kinetics of reaction 6 (a desired reaction for production of nitroparaffins) are hence considerably higher for both propane and / -butane as compared to methane and ethane. Experimental results also iadicate for propane nitration that more 2-nitropropane [79-46-9] is produced than 1-nitropropane [108-03-2]. Obviously the hydroxyl radical attacks the secondary bonds preferentially even though there are more primary bonds than secondary bonds. 

Aqueous Phase. In contrast to photolysis of ozone in moist air, photolysis in the aqueous phase can produce hydrogen peroxide initially because the hydroxyl radicals do not escape the solvent cage in which they are formed (36). 

Peroxonitrous acid can decompose by two pathways isomerization to nitric acid, and dissociation into the hydroxyl radical and nitrogen dioxide. 

The hydroxyl radical is responsible for some of the oxidation products of organic compounds by peroxonitrous acid. 

Alkyl hydroperoxides give alkoxy radicals and the hydroxyl radical. r-Butyl hydroperoxide is often used as a radical source. Detailed studies on the mechanism of the decomposition indicate that it is a more complicated process than simple unimolecular decomposition. The alkyl hydroperoxides are also sometimes used in conjunction with a transition-metal salt. Under these conditions, an alkoxy radical is produced, but the hydroxyl portion appears as hydroxide ion as the result of one-electron reduction by the metal ion. ... 

The compounds formed when a hydroxyl group (-OH) is substituted for a hydrogen are called alcohols. They have the general formula R-OH. The hydroxyl radical looks exactly like the hydroxide ion, but it is not an ion. Where the hydroxide ion fits the definition of a complex ion - a chemical combination of two or more atoms that have colleetively lost or (as in this case) gained one or more electrons - the... 

One of the important consequences of neuronal stimulation is increased neuronal aerobic metabolism which produces reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS can oxidize several biomoiecules (carbohydrates, DNA, lipids, and proteins). Thus, even oxygen, which is essential for aerobic life, may be potentially toxic to cells. Addition of one electron to molecular oxygen (O,) generates a free radical [O2)) the superoxide anion. This is converted through activation of an enzyme, superoxide dismurase, to hydrogen peroxide (H-iO,), which is, in turn, the source of the hydroxyl radical (OH). Usually catalase... 

In an unusual example of displacement of fluonne by hydroxyl, hydroxyl radicals attack fluorinated benzenes Hexafluorobenzene is the least reactive The hydroxyl radical generates the pentafluorocyclohexadienonyl radical from it [13] (equation 13) These unstable species are detected spectroscopically Their disap-... 

The hydroxyl radical rapidly abstracts an H atom from a second molecule of HCIO4 to give H2O plus CIO and the 2 radicals CIO and CIO then decompose to the elements via the intermediate oxides. Above 450° the CI2 produced reacts with H2O to give 2HC1 plus whilst in the low-temperature range (150-310°) the decomposition is heterogeneous and second order in HCIO4. 

Heterocyclic compounds have in most cases been hydroxylated by modified forms of Fenton s reagent. For instance, EDTA or pyrophosphate have been added to the system to complex the ferrous ions. It has been shown in the reactions of bcnzenoid compounds, however, that addition of complexing agents does not affect the distribution of isomers obtained by Fenton s reagent,and therefore the hydroxyl radical must still be the hydroxylating species. 

Hydroxy radical and sulfate radical anion, though they may sometimes give rise to similar products, show quite different selectivity in their reactions with unsaturated substrates. In particular, the sulfate radical anion has a somewhat lower propensity for hydrogen abstraction than the hydroxyl radical. For example, the sulfate radical anion shows little tendency to abstract hydrogen from mcthacrylic acid.232... 

Sulfate radical anion may be converted to the hydroxyl radical in aqueous solution. Evidence for this pathway under polymerization conditions is the formation of a proportion of hydroxy end groups in some polymerizations. However, the hydrolysis of sulfate radical anion at neutral pi I is slow (k— 107 M"1 s 1) compared with the rale of reaction with most monomers (Ar=l08-109 M 1 s 1, Table 3.7)440 under typical reaction conditions. Thus, hydrolysis should only be competitive with addition when the monomer concentration is very low. The formation of hydroxy end groups in polymerizations initiated by sulfate radical anion can also be accounted for by the hydration of an intermediate radical cation or by the hydrolysis of an initially formed sulfate adduct either during the polymerization or subsequently. 

The composition of I, and possibly its structure, may be deduced by identifying Q. Certain examples from peroxide chemistry will illustrate the scope of the method. The reactions of ferrous(nitriloacetate) and ferrous(ethylenediamine-N,N -diacetate) with hydrogen peroxide are complicated processes.1 A particular scavenger T did indeed divert the reaction at high concentrations of T. The required levels of T were, however, much higher than those that would have been needed to trap the hydroxyl radical, HO. It is thereby ruled out. With this and with spectroscopic evidence, a reactive hypervalent iron complex was suggested as the intermediate. 

In related work, the reactions of hydrogen peroxide with iron(II) complexes, including Feu(edta), were examined.3 Some experiments were carried out with added 5.5"-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) as a trapping reagent fa so-called spin trap) for HO. These experiments were done to learn whether HO was truly as free as it is when generated photochemically. The hydroxyl radical adduct was indeed detected. but for some (not all) iron complexes evidence was obtained for an additional oxidizing intermediate, presumably an oxo-iron complex. 

Solutions containing HO as the only important energetic species can be prepared by scavenging e with H30+ [Eq. (11-58)] or by using N20-saturated solutions. The latter, an effective scavenger of e, also doubles the yield of the hydroxyl radical ... 

Dorfman, L. M. and Adams, G. E., "Reactivity of the Hydroxyl Radical in Aqueous Solutions", NSRDS-NBS46, U. S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C., 1973. 

Trace-gas Lifetimes. The time scales for tropospheric chemical reactivity depend upon the hydroxyl radical concentration [HO ] and upon the rate of the HO/trace gas reaction, which generally represents the slowest or rate-determining chemical step in the removal of an individual, insoluble, molecular species. These rates are determined by the rate constant, e,g. k2s for the fundamental reaction with HO, a quantity that in general must be determined experimentally. The average lifetime of a trace gas T removed solely by its reaction with HO,... 

The lifetime of T is an inverse function of the hydroxyl radical concentration [HO>] and the rate constant kj for its reaction with a particular trace gas... 

Hard et al (reference 110, 125, and submitted to/. Geophys, Res. 1991) have developed a system for the chemical conversion of HO2 to HO via the reaction HO2 + NO —> HO -I- N02. The hydroxyl radical is then measured by their low-pressure laser-induced-fluorescence instrument. Their multi-sample-channel LIF PAGE system is thus capable of simultaneous measurements of [HO ] (directly) and [H02 ] (by conversion to HO ). 

Figure 4-13 shows an example from a three-dimensional model simulation of the global atmospheric sulfur balance (Feichter et al, 1996). The model had a grid resolution of about 500 km in the horizontal and on average 1 km in the vertical. The chemical scheme of the model included emissions of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) from the oceans and SO2 from industrial processes and volcanoes. Atmospheric DMS is oxidized by the hydroxyl radical to form SO2, which, in turn, is further oxidized to sulfuric acid and sulfates by reaction with either hydroxyl radical in the gas phase or with hydrogen peroxide or ozone in cloud droplets. Both SO2 and aerosol sulfate are removed from the atmosphere by dry and wet deposition processes. The reasonable agreement between the simulated and observed wet deposition of sulfate indicates that the most important processes affecting the atmospheric sulfur balance have been adequately treated in the model. 

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