Fig. 4. The radical trapping reaction in acetonitrile. (a) The effect of an electron donor (KOtBu or TDAE) on the yield. (b) Formation of the trapped phenalenyl radical and its solid state structure, and perspective ORTEP views of the molecular structure of 17. Thermal ellipsoids are drawn with 50% probability. Hydrogen atoms and solvent molecules (acetonitrile) have been omitted for the sake of clarity. Selected bond lengths (Å) and bond angles (°) for the structure of complex 17: O1–K1 2.570(4), O1–C1 1.300(6), C10–C11 1.397(8), C7–C10 1.602(8) and N2–C11 1.128(7); K1–O1–C1 139.7(3), C6A–C7–C8 112.8(4), C9–C8–C7 123.3(5), C11–C10–C7 111.5(5) and N2–C11–C10 173.9(7). (c) The reaction pathway for trapping the phenalenyl-based radical complex and spin density plots of the K-PLY2 radical complex and CH2CN radical.
