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  • Title: How do strain and steric interactions affect the reactions of aromatic compounds with free radicals? Characterization of the radicals formed by muonium addition to p-xylene and [2.2]paracyclophane by DFT calculations and muon spin spectroscopy.
    Author: McKenzie I, Scheuermann R, Sedlak K.
    Journal: J Phys Chem A; 2012 Jul 26; 116(29):7765-72. PubMed ID: 22800614.
    Abstract:
    Muoniated radicals were produced by the addition of muonium (Mu) to the aromatic compound p-xylene (1) in the solid and liquid states and to the strained aromatic compound [2.2]paracyclophane (2) in the solid state. The radicals were characterized by avoided level crossing muon spin resonance spectroscopy and identified by comparing the experimentally determined muon hyperfine coupling constants with values obtained from DFT calculations. Mu was observed to add to both the secondary and tertiary carbons of 1, with the relative yield of the Mu adduct of the tertiary carbons estimated to be ∼10% in the liquid phase. The relative yield of the tertiary adduct is much higher in the solid state although this cannot be calculated exactly due to the overlap of resonances and the apparent nonuniform distribution of the radical orientations. There are three possible addition sites in 2 due to the lower symmetry of the six-membered ring compared with 1. Mu can add to the secondary carbons either from the outside of 2, generating the "exo" adduct, or from the inside, generating the "endo" adduct. The relative yields of the exo, endo, and tertiary carbon adducts are 67.1(1), 21.8(1), and 11.1(1)%, respectively. The barriers to Mu addition at the different sites of isolated molecules were determined from DFT calculations. The barriers for Mu addition to 2 are lower than the barriers for Mu addition to 1, except for addition to the "endo" position, where the unfavorable steric interactions with the second ring of 2 raise the addition barrier considerably. The measured relative yields do not reflect the distribution of products calculated using the activation energies obtained from the DFT calculations due to strong steric interactions with neighboring molecules.
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