Reduction potentials and kinetics of electron transfer reactions of phenylthiyl radicals: Comparisons with phenoxyl radicals

The reduction potentials relative to the standard hydrogen electrode (SHE) for a number of para-substituted phenylthiyl radicals (E degrees(p-XC(6)H(4)S(.)/p-XC(6)H(4)S(-))) have been derived from pulse radiolytic studies of electron transfer equilibria which compare their values to those of radicals of known reduction potentials, A ladder combining the reduction potentials for both phenylthiyl and phenoxyl radicals has been established. These reduction potentials have been shown to be self-consistent and are intermediate between those of p-benzosemiquinone radical anion at 0.02 V and phenoxyl radical at 0.79 V. The reduction potential decreases as the electron donating power of the para substituent rises, The substituent effect is, however, much weaker for the phenylthiyl radicals than for their oxygen analogs. These observations demonstrate that the electronic interaction between the sulfur atoms and the aromatic ring system is much less than that which occurs with oxygen atoms. Examination of the rates of electron transfer in terms of the Marcus theory indicates that the reorganization energies of both p-XC(6)H(4)O(.) and p-XC(6)H(4)S(.) radicals are similarly affected by H, CH3, and CH3O substitution, However, the reorganization energies increase substantially for H2N and O- para substituents with the effect being much less for the p-XC(6)H(4)S(.) radicals than for the p-XC(6)H(4)O(.) radicals. These observations are in accord with structural information from spectroscopic and theoretical studies of the radicals which show that in the latter system the substituent groups interact strongly with the aromatic pi system.