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Introduction to Organic Chemistry

Free Radical and Curly Arrow Mechanisms

  • 3 things to know
  • Papers 2 and 3

Overview

Homolytic and heterolytic fission, free radicals, and what a curly arrow represents.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

What is a free radical?

Process

What does a single-headed curly arrow represent in a mechanism?

Process

What does a double-headed curly arrow represent in a mechanism?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is a free radical?

    Model answer

    A species with an unpaired electron

  2. 2

    How is a free radical formed from a covalent bond?

    Model answer

    By homolytic fission, where the bond breaks and each atom takes one electron

  3. 3

    What type of bond fission produces free radicals?

    Model answer

    Homolytic fission

  4. 4

    What does a single-headed curly arrow represent in a mechanism?

    Model answer

    The movement of a single electron

  5. 5

    What does a double-headed curly arrow represent in a mechanism?

    Model answer

    The movement of a pair of electrons

  6. 6

    In homolytic fission, how are the bonding electrons distributed between the two atoms?

    Model answer

    Each atom receives one electron from the bonding pair

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Atomic Structure
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