Electron spin resonance spectra of nitroxyl radicals

Hyperfine coupling constants (HFCCs) of nitroxyl radicals were calculated using density functional theory (DFT) to address the structure of nitroxide intermediates in controlled radical polymerization. In a preliminary step, the reliability of different theoretical methods has been substantiated by comparing calculated HFCCs to experimental data for a set of acyclic and cyclic alkylnitroxyl radicals. In a second step this tested approach was applied to support experimental evidence of several nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) reactions.