Conversion of nitric oxide into a nitroxide radical using 2,3-dimethylbutadiene and 2,5-dimethylhexadiene

Abstract

Reaction of nitric oxide with 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene gave an unstable nitroxide radical characterised by hyperfine coupling to four equivalent β-protons in addition to the normal ¹⁴N triplet: however reaction with the tetramethyl derivative (2,5-dimethyl-2,4-hexadiene) gave an extremely stable nitroxide, which may be of use in pollution studies and especially in studies of nitric oxide in mammalian cells.