Kinetic products of linoleate peroxidation: rapid beta-fragmentation of nonconjugated peroxyls

Ethers represent a class of chemical compounds that become more dangerous with prolonged storage because they tend to form explosive peroxides when standing in the air. Autoxidation is the spontaneous oxidation of a compound in air. In the presence of oxygen, ethers slowly oxidize to form hydroperoxides and dialkyl peroxides.

Diols are compounds with two hydroxyl groups. In addition to syn dihydroxylation, diols can also be synthesized through the process of anti dihydroxylation. The process involves treating an alkene with a peroxycarboxylic acid to form an epoxide. Epoxides are highly strained three-membered rings with oxygen and two carbons occupying the corners of an equilateral triangle. This step is followed by ring-opening of the epoxide in the presence of an aqueous acid to give a trans diol.

In ozonolysis, ozone is used to cleave a carbon–carbon double bond to form aldehydes and ketones, or carboxylic acids, depending on the work-up.
Ozone is a symmetrical bent molecule stabilized by a resonance structure.

In the presence of oxidizing agents, phenols are oxidized to quinones. Quinones can be easily reduced back to phenols using mild reducing agents. The electron-donating hydroxyl group enhances the reactivity of the aromatic ring, enabling oxidation of the ring even in the absence of an α hydrogen.
o-hydroxy phenols are oxidized to o-quinones and p-hydroxy phenols to p-quinones. Such redox reactions involve the transfer of two electrons and two protons. The reversible redox property is crucial in...

Another method of radical formation is the elimination process. It is the opposite of the addition route and is driven by the instability of the radical. For example, as depicted in Figure 1, dibenzoyl peroxide yields a pair of unstable radicals upon homolysis. Given its instability, this radical spontaneously undergoes elimination via a C–C bond cleavage to form a relatively more stable phenyl radical. The mechanism involves cleavage of the bond between the α and β positions with respect to...

The oxidation of an organic compound in the presence of air or oxygen is called autoxidation. For example, cumene reacts with oxygen to form hydroperoxide. Autoxidation involves initiation, propagation, and termination steps. Many organic compounds are susceptible to autoxidation—especially ethers in the presence of oxygen, which form hydroperoxides. Even though this reaction is slow, old ether bottles contain small amounts of peroxide, which leads to laboratory explosions during ether...