What radicals are most stable?

1 Answer
Al E.
Jun 1, 2018

Radicals are most stabilized by two things:

  1. Hyperconjugation, or

  2. Resonance

The former delocalizes electron density from adjacent #C-H# bonds, and the latter delocalizes the radical electron around a molecule.

I'll refer you to another one of my answers to explain the first concept, because students find it hard to understand, generally.

https://socratic.org/questions/how-does-the-stability-of-carbocation-is-related-with-the-stability-of-free-radi

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