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They also play a key role in the intermediary metabolism of various biological compounds. In living organisms, the radicals superoxide and nitric oxide and their reaction products regulate many processes, such as control of vascular tone and thus blood pressure. A majority of natural products are generated by radical-generating enzymes. Radicals are important in combustion, atmospheric chemistry, polymerization, plasma chemistry, biochemistry, and many other chemical processes. Radicals are intermediates in many chemical reactions, more so than is apparent from the balanced equations. Radicals may be generated in a number of ways, but typical methods involve redox reactions, Ionizing radiation, heat, electrical discharges, and electrolysis are known to produce radicals. Two other examples are triplet oxygen and triplet carbene ( ꞉ CH ), a molecule that has one unpaired electron on the oxygen atom.

Most organic radicals have short lifetimes.Ī notable example of a radical is the hydroxyl radical (HO With some exceptions, these unpaired electrons make radicals highly chemically reactive.

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In chemistry, a radical, also known as a free radical, is an atom, molecule, or ion that has at least one unpaired valence electron. Hydroxide ion compared to a hydroxyl radical The hydroxyl radical, Lewis structure shown, contains one unpaired electron. For radicals within larger molecules, see Moiety (chemistry).

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