Frontiers Of Free Radical Chemistry

Frontiers of Free Radical Chemistry covers the proceedings of the 1979 symposium on Frontiers of Free Radical Chemistry, held in Louisiana State University Chemistry Department, supported by the Exxon Education Foundation. The contributors discuss the mechanisms of hydrocarbon cracking; oxidation processes; inhibition; and the theory of organic radical reactions, halogenations, and organic peroxide chemistry. This book is organized into three parts encompassing 15 chapters. Part I deals with the understanding of molecular and free radical mechanisms in predicting thermochemical data for radicals and molecules. This part also describes the relationship between distortions of organic molecules and the reactions of pericyclic, ionic, and radical molecules. Part II presents quantitative evaluations of gas phase reactions or carbynes and hydrocarbon pyrolysis and cracking. Discussions on the reactions of free atoms and radicals in the chemistry of the stratosphere and natural troposphere, with an emphasis on the ozone layer and its potential depletion by artificial pollutants, are included in this part. Part III explores the pertinent free radical reactions related to fuel research. Petroleum chemists, researchers, and engineers will find this book invaluable.

This series is designed to provide a vehicle in which investigators, who have demonstrated a high degree of competence in some aspect of free radical chemistry, can present a particular area of interest. The series encompasses a wide variety of topics which are of current interest.

Elementary radical reactions are described in terms of fundamental knowledge of organic chemistry and chemical physics in this valuable reference text. The complex radical processes of nonchain and chain mechanisms, such as dimerization, alkylation, polymerization, telomerization, halogenation pyrolysis, oxidation and combustion, are complemented by reactions in chemical lasers and in the cosmos, as well as by reactions in biological objects under normal or pathological metabolism. The text also provides the synthesis of facts from various fields of research and involves mechanisms where free radicals appear either as main or side intermediates in one of the several alternatives of the reaction pathway. Highlights include 38 tables and 39 figures.

This book subtitled The Chemistry of Initiation of Non-Ringed Compounds/Monomers is the second Volume [Vol. (II)] of the book titled The New Frontiers in Sciences, Engineering and the Arts. For a compound to undergo Initiation, it must be such that has what is called Activation center(s) wherein there are three kinds of many types. When such compounds are activated, they can be made to undergo either polymeric or chemical reactions. When made to undergo polymeric reactions, the compounds are said to be Addition monomers. It is only when the Initiation Step is favoured by the monomer using an Initiator, that the Propagation Step begins, just as when a child is born into our world, the child begins to grow. If the Initiation Step is not favoured, due to presence of what are called Transfer Species, then chemical reactions take place to give non-polymeric products under Equilibrium mechanism conditions. There are different kinds and types of Transfer Species. They are so important to the point where they indeed embrace the first law in Chemistry, that which has been called The law of Conservation of transfer of transfer species, almost analogous to the Conservation laws in Engineering. Based on this law, so many new concepts too countless to list were identified. How some compounds/monomers rearrange to give other compounds/monomers via different kinds of phenomena all new to Present-day Science, have been identified. So also, are the concepts of Resonance Stabilization which was thought to take place chargedly, something very impossible. There are also many monomers which Present-day Science activate chargedly, things all found to be impossible. Indeed, as has been said, all chemical reactions take place only radically, while only some polymeric reactions take place chargedly, in view of the types of mechanisms involved. Different families of compounds/monomers with activation centers, both known and unknown, olefinic and non-olefinic were considered, providing their chemical behaviours under different operating conditions, based on the New Science. Unlike what is known in Present-day Science, there are Males (called Electrophiles) and Females (called Nucleophiles) compounds/monomers; indeed, more of Females than Males. While Males carry at least two different types of Activation centers cumulatively or conjugatedly placed, Females carry one, two or more same types of activation centers. How these monomers all coming from different family trees favour the routes favoured by them have been shown, even to the point where some which could not be polymerized by Present-day Science, can now be polymerized. For the first time, one has shown what the Hydrocarbon family tree looks like. In view of the absence of hetero atoms in the tree, there are no Males for those that carry Activation centers. For the first time, Azo compounds including hydrocarbons have been renamed and reclassified. How they decompose when catalyzed and non-catalyzed, have begun to be shown. They are important, because from there one began to distinguish between surface and laboratory or industrial chemistry. For the first time, one showed how membranes can be obtained from chitins. So also, one has shown how the oxidation of ortho-xylene which Present-day Science thought was also combustion to give phthalic anhydride using vanadium pentoxide takes place. From all indications, a new science has emerged.