In order to explore the effects of the electronic nature of charged phenyl radicals on their reactivity, reactions of the three distonic isomers of ndehydropyridinium cation (n = 2, 3 or 4) have been investigated in the gas phase by using Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. All three isomers react with cyclohexane, methanol, ethanol and 1-pentanol exclusively via hydrogen atom abstraction, and with allyl iodide mainly via iodine atom abstraction, with a reaction efficiency ordering: 2 > 3 > 4. The observed reactivity ordering correlates well with the calculated vertical electron affinities of the charged radicals (i.e., the higher the vertical electron affinity, the faster the reaction). Charged radicals 2 and 3 also react with tetrahydrofuran exclusively via hydrogen atom abstraction, but the reaction of 4 with tetrahydrofuran yields products arising from nonradical reactivity. The unusual reactivity of 4 is likely to result from the contribution of an ionized carbenetype resonance structure that facilitates nucleophilic addition to the most electrophilic carbon atom (C-4) in this charged radical. The influence of such a resonance structure on the reactivity of 2 is not obvious, and this may be due to stabilizing hydrogen-bonding interactions in the transition states for this molecule. Charged radicals 2 and 3 abstract a hydrogen atom from the substituent in both phenol and toluene, but 4 abstracts a hydrogen atom from the phenyl ring -a reaction that is unprecedented for phenyl radicals. Charged radical 4 reacts with tert-butyl isocyanide mainly by hydrogen cyanide (HCN) abstraction while CN abstraction is the principal reaction for 2 and 3. The different reactivity observed for 4 (compared to 2 and 3) is likely to result from different charge and spin distributions of the reaction intermediates for these charged radicals.

Tri‐, bi‐, and monoradicals: The reactivity of a σ,σ,σ‐triradical, 2,4,6‐tridehydropyridinium cation, was compared with that of related mono‐ and biradicals in a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer. The triradical has a doublet ground state and contains three interacting radical sites. The reactivity of the triradical more closely resembles that of related monoradicals than related biradicals.

A combined computational and experimental study on the gas-phase structures and reactivities of charged 1,3-didehydroarenes (meta-benzynes) demonstrates that the reactivity of such biradicals can be "tuned" by using appropriate substituents. Substituents that destabilize a specific zwitterionic resonance structure can change the reactivity of the biradical from mildly carbocationic to radical-like. These substituent effects are not the result of changes in the singlet-triplet gaps of the biradicals, but rather reflect changes in the potential energy surfaces for the dehydrocarbon separation.

The gas-phase reactions of sugars with aromatic, carbon-centered ,-biradicals with varying polarities [as reflected by their calculated electron affinities (EA)] and extent of spin-spin coupling [as reflected by their calculated singlet-triplet (S-T) gaps] have been studied. The biradicals are positively charged, which allows them to be manipulated and their reactions to be studied in a Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer. Hydrogen atom abstraction from sugars was found to be the dominant reaction for the biradicals with large EA values, while the biradicals with large S-T gaps tend to form addition/elimination products instead. Hence, not all ,-biradicals may be able to damage DNA by hydrogen atom abstraction. The overall reaction efficiencies of the biradicals towards a given substrate were found to be directly related to the magnitude of their EA values, and inversely related to their S-T gaps. The EA of a biradical appears to be a very important rate-controlling factor, and it may even counterbalance the reduced radical reactivity characteristic of singlet biradicals that have large S-T gaps. . These intermediates are believed to irreversibly damage double-stranded DNA via hydrogen atom abstraction from a sugar moiety in each strand [2]. Therefore, a better understanding of the factors controlling the reactivity of these biradicals toward sugars is important.Solution [3] and gas-phase [4] studies on the reactivity of neutral and charged phenyl radicals have confirmed that these monoradicals can abstract hydrogen atoms from sugars as well as from the sugar moiety in nucleosides and dinucleoside phosphates. Polar effects (i.e., polarization of the transition state) play a major role in controlling these reactions [5][6][7]. However, no such studies have been reported for the analogous biradicals.The magnitude of the singlet-triplet (S-T) gap has been proposed earlier [8] as the major reaction rate controlling factor for aromatic ,-biradicals with singlet ground states. As the magnitude of the S-T gap increases, the reaction efficiency for hydrogen atom abstraction from simple substrates has been observed to decrease, presumably because of the energetically high cost of uncoupling the biradical's electrons in the transition state [8,9]. Biradicals with large S-T gaps appear to avoid this penalty by undergoing nucleophilic or electrophilic (nonradical) addition reactions [10]. Recent gas-phase studies have shown that in addition to S-T gap effects [9], reactions of biradicals with simple organic substrates are also sensitive to polar effects (which is reflected by the biradical's calculated vertical electron affinity, EA) [11]. Here, we report an examination of the reactivity of several ,-biradicals (Scheme 1) toward various sugars, and show that these reactions are also affected by the S-T gap and the EA of the biradical.