Autoxidation of organoboranes and related organometallics: Radicals and their ramifications

Abstract

The identification, 50 years ago, of the autoxidation products of organoboranes as organoperoxyboranes, and of the mechanism of the reaction as a radical chain, has had far-reaching consequences in organometallic and organic chemistry in the identification of organic radicals and of other radical reactions, in the use of organoboron compounds in synthesis and catalysis, in the parallel chemistry of other metals (particularly, currently, of zinc), and of the behaviour of metals as hydrogen equivalents. This review traces the course of some of those developments in the radical chemistry of compounds in which oxygen forms a bond with boron and related metals, and summarises the present position.