Quantum chemical calculations have unveiled the unexpected biradical character of titanium(IV) enolates from N-acyl oxazolidinones and thiazolidinethiones. The electronic structure of these species therefore involves a valence tautomerism consisting of an equilibrium between a closed shell (formally Ti(IV) enolates) and an open shell, biradical, singlet (formally Ti(III) enolates) electronic states, whose origin is to be basically found in changes of the Ti-O distance. Spectroscopic studies of the intermediate species lend support to such a model, which also turns out to be crucial for a better understanding of the overall reactivity of titanium(IV) enolates. In this context, a thorough computational analysis of the radical addition of titanium(IV) enolates from N-acyl oxazolidinones to TEMPO has permitted us to suggest an entire mechanism, which accounts for the experimental details and the diastereoselectivity of the process. All together, this evidence highlights the relevance of biradical intermediates from titanium(IV) enolates and may be a useful contribution to the foundations of a more insightful comprehension of the structure and reactivity of titanium(IV) enolates.

The conventional electrophilic intramolecular aromatic substitution pathway proposed by Cresp et al. [J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1 1973, 340–345] is confirmed by the observed products of phenolic formylation mediated by TiCl4. However, when the nucleophilic path is quenched by appropriate ligand modification, the initial equilibria between the possible neutral complexes of TiCl4 with 3,5‐dimethoxyphenol and/or diethyl ether lead to different stable diradical intermediates induced by valence tautomerism that provide valuable activated reagents. Some of these species have been detected by EPR, characterized theoretically and captured by TEMPO, thus providing a consistent mechanism for the reaction with one or more equivalents of TEMPO per phenol.

The formation of stable organic biradicals by a deprotonation process is reported for a series of conjugated heterocycles that share a Ph-N(H)-2-thiazole structural motif. We characterise the paramagnetic electronic ground state by means of continuous-wave and pulse EPR. We propose a simple valence bond mechanism for a deprotonation-induced formation of paramagnetic organic molecules, based on the interplay between the electronegativity of heteroatomic groups and the recovery of aromaticity to stabilise the biradical species. The Ph-N(H)-2-thiazole motif is found in a variety of biologically active molecules, exemplified here with the anticancer drug Dasatinib, and our results suggest a radical-based mechanism for the protein kinase inhibition activity of the drug. The existence of this structure-property relationship for an elementary chemical motif suggests that biradical species may be more prevalent than previously thought and have an important role in bioorganic chemistry.