Probing Molecular-Scale Oxidative Generation of Quinone Methides and Their Transformation Using Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Quinone methides (QMs) are very important intermediates in chemistry. These species are most often generated in situ with metal oxidants and transition metal complexes. Here, tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) has been implemented to investigate the in situ oxidative generation of a QM species from alkylphenols facilitated by a transition metal complex. Using TERS, the metal oxidant-mediated transformation of a phenol species has been...