Radical-nucleophilic aromatic substitution
Radical-nucleophilic aromatic substitution or SRN1 in organic chemistry is a type of substitution reaction in which a certain substituent on an aromatic compound is replaced by a nucleophile through an intermediary free radical species:
The substituent X is a halide and nucleophiles can be sodium amide, an alkoxide or a carbon nucleophile such as an enolate. In contrast to regular nucleophilic aromatic substitution, deactivating groups on the arene are not required.
This reaction type was discovered in 1970 by Bunnett and Kim and the abbreviation SRN1 stands for substitution radical-nucleophilic unimolecular as it shares properties with an aliphatic SN1 reaction. An example of this reaction type is the Sandmeyer reaction.
In this radical substitution the aryl halide 1 accepts an electron from an radical initiator forming a radical anion 2. This intermediate collapses into an aryl radical 3 and a halide anion. The aryl radical reacts with the nucleophile 4 to a new radical anion 5 which goes on to form the substituted product by transferring its electron to new aryl halide in the chain propagation. Alternatively the phenyl radical can abstract any loose proton from 7 forming the arene 8 in a chain termination reaction.
...
Wikipedia