Free Radical Oxidation: Taking the Battle from Fossil Fuel-Derived Products to Living Matter

碳氢化合物的自由基氧化是所有化石燃料衍生产品（如润滑剂、橡胶、塑料和特种化学品）变质的主要原因。因此，抑制自动氧化的添加剂--抗氧化剂（AO）--是化学工业不可或缺的一部分。虽然大量的AO（1-15%重量）必须添加到石油衍生产品，以确保他们有一个有用的寿命，在工业AO技术的创新已经停滞了一段时间。缺乏重大的新发展可以追溯到人们认为缺乏必要性：化石燃料长期以来被视为无限资源，最大限度地提高其使用效率并不是优先事项。显然，这种观点已经改变。我们建议利用我们小组最近提出的机理见解来开发在广泛条件下表现出催化效率的新型AO。这将使得新技术的设计能够通过最大化由其衍生的产品的寿命来最小化化石燃料消耗，并且允许设计更有效的内燃机，这目前受到在所需的较高温度下禁止润滑剂氧化的限制。

The free radical oxidation of hydrocarbons is primarily responsible for the deterioration of all fossil fuel-derived products (e.g. lubricants, rubbers, plastics and specialty chemicals). Accordingly, additives that inhibit autoxidation - antioxidants (AOs) - are an indispensable part of the chemical industry. Although substantial quantities of AO (1-15% by weight) must be added to petroleum-derived products to ensure they have a useful lifetime, innovation in industrial AO technology has been stagnant for some time. The lack of significant new developments can be traced to a perceived lack of necessity: fossil fuels have long been viewed as an infinite resource and maximizing how efficiently they are used has not been a priority. Clearly, this view has changed. We propose to utilize recent mechanistic insights made by our group to develop novel AOs that exhibit catalytic efficiency under a broad range of conditions. This will enable the design of new technology to minimize fossil fuel consumption by maximizing the life of products derived therefrom, and permit the design of more efficient combustion engines, which is currently limited by prohibitive lubricant oxidation at the higher temperatures which are required.