Radical

radical, also called Free Radical, in chemistry, molecule that contains at least one unpaired electron. Most molecules contain even numbers of electrons, and the covalent chemical bonds holding the atoms together within a molecule normally consist of pairs of electrons jointly shared by the atoms linked by the bond. Most radicals may be considered to have arisen by cleavage of normal electron-pair bonds, every cleavage having produced two separate entities, each of which contains a single, unpaired electron from the broken bond (in addition to all the rest of the normal, paired electrons of the atoms).

Although free radicals contain unpaired electrons, they may be electrically neutral. Because of their odd electrons, free radicals are usually highly reactive. They combine with one another, or with single atoms that also carry free electrons, to give ordinary molecules, all of whose electrons are paired; or they react with intact molecules, abstracting parts of the molecules to complete their own electron pairs and generating new free radicals in the process. In all these reactions, each simple free radical, because of its single unpaired electron, is able to combine with one other radical or atom containing a single unpaired electron. Under special circumstances, diradicals can be formed with unpaired electrons on each of two atoms (giving an overall even number of electrons), and these diradicals have a combining power of two.

Certain free radicals are stabilized by their peculiar structures; they exist for appreciable lengths of time, given the right conditions. Most free radicals, however, including such simple ones as the methyl (·CH₃) and ethyl (·C₂H₅) radicals, are capable of only the most fleeting independent existence.