Substituent effects in the reaction of phenols with polyacrylonitrile radicals

Substituent effects in the reactivities of phenols towards polyacrylonitrile radicals have been studied in terms of Swain and Luptons' field (F_k) and resonance (R_k) components of the substituent parameters and the unique positional weighting factors (f_j and r_j) proposed by Williams and Norrington, with the aid of the following equation:

$\text{P}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{= x}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{F}{}_{\mathrm{k}}\text{+ ß}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{r}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{K}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{+ e}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{+}\text{P}\text{i}\text{o}$

P_i′s are the rate parameters, P_i⁰ being that for a standard reference compound. Two types of rate parameters have been employed—one, suggested by Simonyi, Tüdös and Pospisil (β) and another, suggested by us, (K), which is obtained from a plot of Monomer]/(rate of polymerisation) vs Phenol]. The correlations have been found to be quite satisfactory with both β and K. An attempt has been made to ascertain the nature of the transition state from the reaction parameters α_i and β_i; a dipolar transition state is suggested. The anomalous kinetic behaviour of hydroxy phenols has been discussed.