Lj. Johnston et Np. Schepp, LASER FLASH-PHOTOLYSIS STUDIES OF THE REACTIVITY OF STYRENE RADICAL CATIONS, Pure and applied chemistry, 67(1), 1995, pp. 71-78
Laser flash photolysis has been used to obtain kinetic and mechanistic
information for the reactions of substituted styrene radical cations
with a variety of anions, alcohols, nitrogen-centred nucleophiles and
alkenes. The reactions studied include nucleophilic addition to the be
ta-position to give a substituted benzyl radical, electron transfer to
regenerate the starting styrene, deprotonation of the radical cation
for styrenes with a beta-methyl group, and cycloaddition to give a cyc
lobutane or Diels-Alder product. The importance of steric and electron
ic factors, solvent, nucleophilicity, basicity and redox potentials in
controlling the competition between the different reaction pathways i
s discussed.