A study of radicals arising in the low-temperature radiolysis of thiophene and some of its derivatives

EPR was used to investigate the radicals formed by radiolysis of furan, thiophene, and some of their substitution products having the general formula C₄H₃RS, where R = Cl, Br, COOH, C(CH₃)₃, and of di-tert-butylthiophene. By analyzing the EPR spectra it is shown that radicals formed by radiolysis of furan, thiophene, their alkyl substitution products, and 2-thiophene carboxylic acid arise in primary radiation-chemical events with splitting of the C-H bond in both ring and side chain. Characteristic of the radiolysis of these compounds is formation of secondary radicals by addition of hydrogen atoms at the double bond of the heteroaromatic ring. The values of the hyperfine splittings in the spectra of the secondary radicals are, for protons of methylene group 32 e positions 2(5)] or 40 e positions 3(4)], and 13 e for protons of the thiophene ring. In radiolysis of 2-chlorothiophene and 3-bromothiophene the main products are radicals with the unpaired electron localized on the sulfur atom.