Respective Contributions of Polar vs Enthalpy Effects in the Addition/Fragmentation of Mercaptobenzoxazole-Derived Thiyl Radicals and Analogues to Double Bonds

Abstract

The formation and the reactivity of three selected sulfur-centered radicals formed from mercaptobenzoxazole, mercaptobenzimidazole, and mercaptobenzothiazole toward four double bonds (methyl acrylate, acrylonitrile, vinyl ether, and vinyl acetate) are investigated. The reversibility of the addition/fragmentation reaction in these widely used photoinitiating systems of radical polymerization was studied, for the first time, through the measurement of the corresponding rate constants by time-resolved laser spectroscopy. The combination of these results with quantum mechanical calculations clearly evidences that, contrary to previous studies on other aryl thiyl radicals, the addition rate constants (ka) are governed here by the polar effects associated with the very high electrophilic character of these radicals. However, interestingly, the back-fragmentation reaction (k-a) is mainly influenced by the enthalpy effects as supported by the relationship between the rate constants and the addition reaction enthalpy DeltaHR. The addition and fragmentation rate constants calculated from the transition state theory (TST) are in satisfactory agreement with the experimental ones. Therefore, molecular orbital (MO) calculations offered new opportunities for a better understanding of the sulfur-centered radical reactivity.