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Spirocyclic nitroxyl radicals (SNRs) are stable paramagnetics bearing spiro-junction at α-, β-, or γ-carbon atom of the nitroxide fragment, which is part of the heterocyclic system. Despite the fact that the first representatives of SNRs were obtained about 50 years ago, the methodology of their synthesis and their usage in chemistry and biochemical applications have begun to develop rapidly only in the last two decades. Due to the presence of spiro-function in the SNRs molecules, the latter have increased stability to various reducing agents (including biogenic ones), while the structures of the biradicals (SNBRs) comprises a rigid spiro-fused core that fixes mutual position and orientation of nitroxide moieties that favors their use in dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) experiments. This first review on SNRs will give a glance at various strategies for the synthesis of spiro-substituted, mono-, and bis-nitroxides on the base of six-membered (piperidine, 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline, 9,9′(10H,10H′)-spirobiacridine, piperazine, and morpholine) or five-membered (2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrole, pyrrolidine, 2,5-dihydro-1H-imidazole, 4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazole, imidazolidine, and oxazolidine) heterocyclic cores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spin-labelled compounds are widely used in chemistry, physics, biology, and material sciences, but the directed synthesis of some functionalized organic radicals is still a challenge. We succeeded in the preparation of a tetrazolyl-substituted nitronyl nitroxide radical in pure crystalline form. According to the single-crystal X-ray data, intra- (NH...O, 2.43 Å) and inter-molecular hydrogen bonds (NH...O, 1.91 Å) are formed between NH groups of the tetrazole cycles and O atoms of the paramagnetic moieties. The intermolecular H-bonds connect the molecules forming chains along the a-axis. Moreover, there are short intermolecular contacts between the O atoms (3.096 Å) and between the O and C atoms (3.096 Å) of the nitronyl nitroxide moieties within the chain. The spin-unrestricted broken-symmetry calculations performed at the BS-UB3LYP/def2-TZVP level of theory predicted a sufficient ferromagnetic interaction (J ≈ 20 cm–1) between the adjacent radicals inside the chain, but a weak antiferromagnetic interaction (−J ≤0.2 cm−1) between the nearest radicals belonging to the different chains. Thus, a rare case when stable radicals, the tetrazolyl-substituted nitronyl nitroxides, are ordered into ferromagnetic chains was revealed; an investigation of the magneto-structural correlations inherent in the nitroxide radical will demand a special experiment in the sub-Kelvin regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermally stable organic diradicals with a triplet ground state along with large singlet-triplet energy gap have significant potential for advanced technological applications. A series of phenylene-bridged diradicals with oxoverdazyl and nitronyl nitroxide units were synthesized via a palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of iodoverdazyls with a nitronyl nitroxide-2-ide gold(I) complex with high yields. The diradicals exhibit high stability and do not decompose in an inert atmosphere up to 180 °C. For the diradicals, both substantial AF (ΔE ST ≈-64 cm -1 ) and FM (ΔE ST ≥25 and 100 cm -1 ) intramolecular exchange interactions were observed. The sign of the exchange interaction is determined both by the bridging moiety (para- or meta-phenylene) and by the type of oxoverdazyl block (C-linked or N-linked). Upon crystallization, diradicals with the triplet ground state form unique one-dimensional exchange-coupled chains with strong intra- and weak inter-diradical ferromagnetic coupling., (© 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Cyclic nitrones of the imidazole series, containing a sterically hindered phenol group, are promising objects for studying antioxidant activity; on the other hand, they can form persistent hybrid phenoxyl-nitroxyl radicals (HPNs) upon oxidation. Here, a series of 5-aryl-4,4-dimethyl-4 H -imidazole 3-oxides was obtained by condensation of aromatic 2-hydroxylaminoketones with 4-formyl-2,6-dialkylphenols followed by oxidation of the initially formed N -hydroxy derivatives. It was shown that the antioxidant activity of both 1-hydroxy-2,5-dihydroimidazoles and 4 H -imidazole 3-oxides increases with a decrease in steric volume of the alkyl substituent in the phenol group, while the stability of the corresponding HPNs generated from 4 H -imidazole 3-oxides reveals the opposite tendency.