Experimental study of dimerization of radical anions of aromatic carbonyl compounds

Abstract

The rate constants of dimerization (k1) of radical anions of acetophenone, 1-acetylnaphthalene, 9-acetylanthracene, 9-formylanthracene, and anthracene in DMF containing 0.02 M tetrabutylammonium bromide were determined by differential cyclic voltammetry. It was shown that the values of k1 of the radical anions investigated are correlated with the values of the boundary electron density on the reaction sites, which in turn increase symbatically with an increase in the size of the aryl fragment or on incorporation of electron-acceptor functional groups in the anthracene nucleus.