The ability of the terpyridine ligand to stabilize alkyl complexes of nickel has been central in obtaining a fundamental understanding of the key processes involved in alkyl-alkyl cross-coupling reactions. Here, mechanistic studies using isotopically labeled (TMEDA)NiMe(2) (TMEDA = N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine) have shown that an important catalyst in alkyl-alkyl cross-coupling reactions, (tpy')NiMe (2b, tpy' = 4,4',4' '-tri-tert-butylterpyridine), is not produced via a mechanism that involves the formation of methyl radicals. Instead, it is proposed that (terpyridine)NiMe complexes arise via a comproportionation reaction between a Ni(II)-dimethyl species and a Ni(0) fragment in solution upon addition of a terpyridine ligand to (TMEDA)NiMe(2). EPR and DFT studies on the paramagnetic (terpyridine)NiMe (2a) both suggest that the unpaired electron resides heavily on the terpyridine ligand and that the proper electronic description of this nickel complex is a Ni(II)-methyl cation bound to a reduced terpyridine ligand. Thus, an important consequence of these results is that alkyl halide reduction by (terpyridine)NiR(alkyl) complexes appears to be substantially ligand based. A comprehensive survey investigating the catalytic reactivity of related ligand derivatives suggests that electronic factors only moderately influence reactivity in the terpyridine-based catalysis and that the most dramatic effects arise from steric and solubility factors.

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Pulsed electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) and two-dimensional (2D)-hyperfine sublevel correlation spectroscopy (HYSCORE) studies in combination with density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that photo-oxidation of natural zeaxanthin (ex Lycium halimifolium) and violaxanthin (ex Viola tricolor) on silica-alumina produces the carotenoid radical cations (Car*+) and also the neutral carotenoid radicals (#Car*) as a result of proton loss (indicated by #) from the C4(4') methylene position or one of the methyl groups at position C5(5'), C9(9'), or C13(13'), except for violaxanthin where the epoxide at positions C5(5')-C6(6') raises the energy barrier for proton loss, and the neutral radicals #Car*(4) and #Car*(5) are not observed. DFT calculations predict the largest isotropic beta-methyl proton hyperfine couplings to be 8 to 10 MHz for Car*+, in agreement with previously reported hyperfine couplings for carotenoid pi-conjugated radicals with unpaired spin density delocalized over the whole molecule. Anisotropic alpha-proton hyperfine coupling tensors determined from the HYSCORE analysis were assigned on the basis of DFT calculations with the B3LYP exchange-correlation functional and found to arise not only from the carotenoid radical cation but also from carotenoid neutral radicals, in agreement with the analysis of the pulsed ENDOR data. The formation of the neutral radical of zeaxanthin should provide another effective nonphotochemical quencher of the excited state of chlorophyll for photoprotection in the presence of excess light.