CARBONIUM ION RADICALS AND OXY RADICALS.

The study concerns the comparison of ferrocenylmethyl derivatives chlorides mostly with benzyl derivatives with respect to unimolecular and bimolecular nucleophilic substitution. A quantitative comparison is found which allows the conclusion that the extreme reactivity of the former systems derives from the cyclopentadienide structure and not from the iron See AD-624 364. Resonance stabilization by the cyclopentadienide moiety accounts for the reactivity and an elimination process accounts for the fact that the leaving anion and the iron assume a trans arrangement in the ionization of ferrocenylmethyl chloride or other derivatives. In addition, a study of the effect of viscosity on the chain length of radical induced decomposition of hydroperoxides has shown that the chain carrying process is diffusion of alkoxyl radicals RO. from a solvent cage containing 2RO. and the chain termination is merely collapse of these radicals to ROOR within the cage. Author