On the electron transfer and hydrogen atom abstraction mechanism for 1-benzyl-1,4-dihydronicotinamide reduction of benzoquinones
The reduction of p-benzoquinone (BQ) by 1-benzyl-1,4-dihydronicotinamide (BNAH) proceeds by a free-radical chain mechanism initiated by single electron transfer (SET). In dry deoxygenated acetonitrile, the chain, whose propagation steps contain a SET–hydrogen atom transfer sequence, could be inhibited by dinitrobenzene and initiated by di-tert-butylperoxyoxalate. The reduction does not follow second-order reaction kinetics. The fractional order of each reactant was found to be 0.80 and 1.36 for BNAH and BQ, respectively. The AG0 values for both the initiation and the propagation steps were evaluated electro-chemically (CV) and were found to be of a reasonable magnitude to sustain a free-radical chain process. Keywords: 1-benzyl-1,4-dihydronicotinamide, p-benzoquinone, free radical, reduction.