Re: ion vs radical

["Dale E. Boyce" <dale@radpro.uchicago.edu>]

Pretty much any freshman chemistry text.  Definitions vary
slightly for radicals.  I'm currently looking at the Van Nostrand's
Scientific Encyclopedia.  It defines a radical as a group of
two or more elements that frequently have the properties of
or enter into chemical reactions as a unit. ... Radicals exist
most commonly in combination with atoms or other radicals.
However, they can be produced "free", and can so exist for a finite
period.

An example of a neutral free radical would be a neutral CH3
group.  Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but I also thought entities
like a neutral hydrogen or oxygen atom were considered to be
free radicals.

Dale
dale@radpro.uchicago.edu