Structure of Cyclopropyl Radical

The radical site C-atom in cyclopropyl radical no longer is planar and it is clearly not (not even approximately) sp2 hybridized. Because of ring strain, the C-C bonds have very high p-character and the orbital for the unpaired electron "can afford" to get some s-character. In the absence of any incentive for doubly-occupied MOs to reduce their s-character, the singly-occupied MO will tend to be high in p-character and, in most cases, be entirely a p-AO.


Figure. The UMP2(full)/6-31G* optimized structure of cyclopropyl radical.