ESR STUDIES OF THE GENERATION AND REACTIONS OF FREE RADICALS IN CHEMICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL SYSTEMS

摘要

Our understanding of the properties of free radicals and the ways in which they are formed has rapidly increased, to match the tremendously enhanced interest in their use in synthesis and their possible involvement in biological, industrial and environmental processes. On the basis of foundations laid largely by Gomberg, Waters, Hey, Kharasch and others, spectroscopic techniques (especially ESR and pulse radiolysis) have provided crucial structural, kinetic and mechanistic details about radical-containing systems; this knowledge largely now underpins our attempts to find evidence for and identify the crucial roles of free radicals present in biological systems, where the problems of direct detection and complete characterization pose a formidable challenge.