An appreciation of free radical chemistry 6. Experiments involving free radicals

In the previous five parts, we have seen how the ubiquitous free radicals touch our lives in many ways. In this part, four experiments involving free radical intermediates are described. They are very simple, economical and practical, and can be easily carried out in laboratories with meagre resources. They can, therefore, be adapted for MSc chemistry practicals as part of free radical chemistry course.     

An appreciation of free radical chemistry part 5: Free radicals in organic synthesis

Free radical synthetic methodology has grown by leaps and bounds in just about two decades. The limit to which the scope of free radical synthesis can go is restricted only by the imagination of the synthetic chemist. It greatly simplifies a synthetic sequence, makes use of readily available, relatively inexpensive reactants and reagen-ts; the transformations are selective, involve fewer steps, the yields are good, the reaction conditions are mild, etc. Therefore, such free radical reactions truly qualify to be called “Green Chemistry”.