Oxygen Centered Radicals in Iodine Chemical Oscillators

The existence of free radicals in iodine-based oscillatory systems has been debated for some time. Recently, we have reported the presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the iodide–peroxide system in acidic medium, which is common to all iodine-based oscillatory systems (J. Phys. Chem. A 2011, 115, 2247−2249). In this work, the goal was to identify the ROS produced in this system using an EPR spin trap which can distinguish between hydroxyl (HO•) and hydroperoxyl (HOO•) radicals. The formation of the hydroperoxyl radical was observed and a possible explanation for the low EPR signal of hydroxyl radical was proposed.