Radical Chemistry: The Fundamentals

by John Perkins

It has been 100 years since Moses Gomberg claimed that he had observed a substance containing a trivalent carbon atom, i.e. a carbon-centred free radical (nowadays, simply a carbon-centred radical). The subsequent development of radical chemistry was at first very slow, but blossomed with the development of synthetic polymers, especially during and after World War II. In what is now generally understood by radical chemistry we are dealing with reactive, short-lived species which are electrically neutral. By the late 1960s, the essential features of the subject were well understood, and quantitative data on the energetics and kinetics of reactive radicals were rapidly accumalating.

92 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2001