Spin trapping

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Spin trapping is a technique employed in the study of free radicals that are either unstable or decay rapidly at ambient temperatures.

Spin trapping involves the addition of a radical scavenger (the spin trap) to a reaction mixture containing a radical or radicals of interest. A reactive free radical adds to the scavenger, forming a long-lived paramagnetic adduct. This product can then be studied by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and the identity of the species adducted can be inferred from EPR spectral characteristics such as an observed g value or a hyperfine-coupling pattern.

One of the most commonly used spin traps is alpha-phenyl N-tertiary-butyl nitrone (PBN).

The use of radical-addition reactions to detect short-lived radicals was first proposed by E. G. Janzen in 1965.