Nitroxides are an
important class of radical trapping antioxidants
whose promising biological activities are connected to their ability
to scavenge peroxyl (ROO
•
) radicals. We have measured
the rate constants of the reaction with ROO
•
(
k
inh
) for a series of 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy
(TEMPO) derivatives as 5.1 × 10
6
, 1.1 × 10
6
, 5.4 × 10
5
, 3.7 × 10
5
, 1.1
× 10
5
, 1.9 × 10
5
, and 5.6 × 10
4
M
–1
s
–1
for −H,
−OH, −NH
2
, −COOH, −NHCOCH
3
, −CONH(CH
2
)
3
CH
3
,
and =O substituents in the 4 position, with a good Marcus relationship
between log (
k
inh
) and
E
° for the R
2
NO
•
/R
2
NO
+
couple. Newly synthesized Pluronic-silica nanoparticles
(PluS) having nitroxide moieties covalently bound to the silica surface
(PluS–NO) through a TEMPO–CONH–R link and coumarin
dyes embedded in the silica core, has
k
inh
= 1.5 × 10
5
M
–1
s
–1
. Each PluS-bound nitroxide displays an inhibition duration nearly
double that of a structurally related "free" nitroxide.
As each PluS–NO
particle bears an average of 30 nitroxide units, this yields an overall
≈60-fold larger inhibition of the PluS–NO nanoantioxidant
compared to the molecular analogue. The implications of these results
for the development of novel nanoantioxidants based on nitroxide derivatives
are discussed, such as the choice of the best linkage group and the
importance of the regeneration cycle in determining the duration of
inhibition.