Radical Reactions of the Azo and Azoxy Groups

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This award made in the Organic Dynamics Program will support the research of Paul Engel at Rice University. The research will focus broadly on the free radical chemistry of azo and azoxy compounds. Specific areas of research that will be addressed are :(1) determination of the stabilization energy of alpha-azo and azoxy radicals, (2) utility of azoperesters as mixed bifunctional free radical polymerization initiators, (3) rearrangement rates of the dimethylcyclopropylcarbinyl radical as applied to radical clocks,(4) free radical reactions of the azoxy group, (5) thermolysis rates of acyclic azoalkanes, and (6) generation of preoxetane biradicals from azoalkanes. Photochemical and thermal approaches will be employed to generate the free radicals under investigation. This research will advance the fundamental understanding of the generation and stabilization of free radicals derived from azo and azoxy compounds as well as explore their use in synthetic transformations and as initiators for high speed polymerizations.