Question

What are composite radicals?

Answer 1

Radicals are not only of one kind, there are various kinds of radicals. Basically a radical is an atom or a molecule which has at least one unpaired electron. Ion and radical may sound the same but they are different in various aspects.

Complete answer: Composite radicals are groups of atoms of different elements and they may also carry a charge, either positive or negative. They are chemically very reactive as they have a lot of free electrons.
Composite radicals behave like a single atom even though they are a group of atoms. Some examples of composite radicals include methyl benzene, cyclohexane, methyl acetate, etc.
Composite radicals are one kind of radical, a radical is an atom or a molecule that has an unpaired valence electron. Due to having such free electrons, radicals are highly reactive.
There are also two types of radicals, neutral radical and charged radical. Positively charged radicals are called cation radicals and negatively charged radicals are called anion radicals.
The radicals with no charge are called composite radicals, they carry free electrons but they do not carry any kind of charge with them.

Note:
Often time radicals are confused with ions, but they are quite different and have different properties. Like ions cannot be neutral, but radicals can be neutral. Electrons in ions are paired, but electrons in radicals are not paired.
Ions are generally not considered stable, but ions are more stable when compared with radicals, thus radicals are highly reactive. One molecule can have two ions, positively charged and negatively charged. Radicals contain whole molecules, for example hydroxyl group is a radical.