Theoretical elucidation on structure–Antioxidant activity relationships for indolinonic hydroxylamines

Indolinonic hydroxylamines (IH), representing a new type of antioxidants, are comparative to α-tocopherol to protect lipids from oxidation. To elucidate the structure–activity relationship for IH, B3LYP/6-31G(d, p) method was employed to calculate the O–H bond dissociation enthalpy (BDE), a theoretical parameter to characterize the free radical scavenging activity. By constructing several model molecules, it was revealed that hydroxylamine was the key structural factor for this type of antioxidants, and substituents had little effect on the O–H BDE. If the =NR of IH was substituted by =O, its activity got lower.