8: Radical Reactivity: Reaction Rate Constants

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As discussed in Chapter 4, any reaction that involves radical intermediates actually consists of two or more elementary reactions. The rate constants for these elementary reactions are critical in determining the success of an overall reaction. Knowing these rate constants then is essential to understanding existing radical reactions and being able to predict new ones.

This chapter is different from the others in this book in that it contains a large number of tables. These tables consist of collections of rate constants. Because relatively few rate constants for reactions of carbohydrates have been determined, most of the values in these tables come from reactions of simpler organic compounds; thus, they serve as models for carbohydrate reactivity. These rate constants do not represent an exhaustive list of those that have been determined; rather, they are ones of interest in understanding the reactions of carbohydrates.