Unprecedented inhibition of hydrocarbon autoxidation by diarylamine radical-trapping antioxidants

J Am Chem Soc. 2015 Feb 25;137(7):2440-3. doi: 10.1021/ja5124144. Epub 2015 Feb 10.

Abstract

The reactivities of novel heterocyclic diarylamine radical-trapping antioxidants (RTAs) are profiled in a heavy hydrocarbon at 160 °C, conditions representative of those at which diphenylamine RTAs are used industrially. While carboxylic acids produced during the autoxidation are shown to deactivate these more basic RTAs, the addition of a sacrificial base leads to efficacies that are unprecedented in the decades of academic and industrial research in this area.