Thermolysis of α-hydroperoxyalkyl diazenes. Spin trapping of radical intermediates and spin trapping kinetics

Abstract

α-Hydroperoxyalkyl diazenes (Me2C(OOH)N=NR, 1, R = CH2CF3, CH2CH2OMe, CH(Me)2, CMe3, CH2Ph, Ph, CH2CH2OPh, and c-C3H5CD2) decompose in benzene, at 50 °C or less, by a mechanism involving free radical (R•) intermediates. The radicals were trapped with 1-methyl-4-nitroso-3,5-diphenylpyrazole, 2, to afford spin adducts (nitroxyls) that were observed by ESR spectroscopy. When the solvent was ethyl vinyl ether, radicals from 1 (R = CH2CH2OPh) were trapped by the solvent and the adduct radicals so formed were spin trapped by 2. These observations support free radical mechanisms for thermolysis of 1 and for the hydroxyalkylations that occur when 1 are decomposed in solutions containing enol ethers or other unsaturated substrates. The ring-opening of cyclopropylmethyl radicals (cpm) to 3-butenyl radicals was used to estimate the rate constant for radical trapping by 2. For cpm the rate constant is given by log kcpm = (10.7 ± 0.4) − (3.9 ± 0.5)/θ where θ = 2.3 RT kcal mol−1. At 25 °C, the spin trapping rate constant has the value 6.9 × 107 M−1 s−1. Key words: hydroperoxyalkyl diazenes; radicals, spin trapping; spin trapping, rate constant.