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Updated: May 24, 2026

Free Radicals in Chemical Biology: from Chemical Behavior to Biomarker Development
Published on: April 15, 2013
Cavitation-induced radical-chain oxidation of valeric aldehyde
Ulrich Neuenschwander1, Jürg Neuenschwander, Ive Hermans
1Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
The application of high-amplitude ultrasound to liquids triggers cavitation. By the collapse of the thereby appearing vacuum cavities, high temperatures can be reached in a transient manner. The high temperatures in these hot-spots can lead to homolytic scission of chemical bonds. The thereby generated radicals are usually utilized in aqueous systems for the degeneration of organic pollutants. In this contribution, we demonstrate that the radicals can also be used for synthetic purposes: under an oxygen atmosphere, they trigger the oxidation of an aldehyde substrate.
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