What happens when free radicals attack aromatic compounds?
So your task in Oxford was to find out more about free radical chemistry? Yes. The electronic theory that I have already mentioned was initially based on studies of ionic substitution reactions of aromatic compounds such as benzene. My obvious goal was to determine what happens when free radicals attack aromatic compounds. It was known that the reaction mixtures would be very complex but nobody knew exactly why, and there was great confusion about the precise reaction mechanism. That was my problem, and I think I solved it in the course of my DPhil work. The mechanism of radical aromatic substitution was more or less clarified. You did extraordinarily well, getting your DPhil after two years. This is where my background training became so important. Doug White had taught me all about chromatography during my Honours year. It was, however, still a fairly new technique when I went to Oxford and I found that I knew far more about it than any of the other members of the group. Without that
