ESR spectroscopic investigation of steric and polar factors in the addition of radicals to unsaturated compounds

The rate constants of the addition of CCl₃CH₂ClCH₃(R⁶) radicals to -methyl-styrene, styrene, methyl methacrylate, methyl acrylate, and acrylonitrile and of CCl₃CH₂(CH₃)₂(R⁷) radicals to styrene, methyl acrylate, and acrylonitrile were determined by ESR spectroscopy. It was shown that the radicals R⁶ and R⁷ possess approximately equal reactivity in addition to unsaturated compounds, despite the difference in the donor-acceptor properties of the substituents at the vinyl group. In a comparison of the reactivity of radicals R⁶ and R⁷ with the reactivity of radicals CCl₃CH₂H₂(R¹), CCl₃CH₂HCH₃(R³), CCl₃CH₂HCl(R⁴), and ClCH₂CH₂Cl₂(R⁵) 1] in addition reactions, it was shown that polar and steric effects of the substituents situated in the -position to the radical site of the above-mentioned radicals, as well as the donor-acceptor properties of the substituents at the vinyl group in the unsaturated compounds, lead to appreciable changes in reactivity.A. N. Nesmeyanov Institute of Heteroorganic Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117813 Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1, pp. 136–141, January, 1992.