Zard provides a description of radical reactions and their applications in organic synthesis. He illustrates that armed with an elementary knowledge of kinetics and some common sense, it is possible to harness radicals into a tremendously powerful tool for solving synthetic problems. The book begins with a brief historical account and presentation of the basics. It then blends the discussion of the properties of radical processes with the now familiar chemistry of
stannanes. Radicals being the same entities, whichever method is used to generate them, a study of the various processes for the creation and capture of radicals constitutes the remainder of the book.
Silicon and mercury based techniques as well as the Barton and related decarboxylation procedures are discussed in detail, followed by the Kharasch type atom and group transfer reactions. The increasingly important persistent radical effect, also known as the Fischer-Ingold effect, is examined in the context of non-chain reactions. Both the Kharasch based methods and the persistent radical effect have recently been applied in the emerging field of controlled radical polymerisations. Finally,
the vast domain of redox processes is presented in a unified manner with the aim of providing a simple rationale for the multitude of possible transformation. The book concludes with a brief overview and
some general practical hints for conducting radical reactions. More than 700 references provide access to the primary literature.