Abstract
The synergistic effect of cyclic ketals in compositions with lower alcohols was first discovered in the study of the octane-raising effect of ketals additives to alcohol-containing gasolines. The use of model oxidation reactions of ketals and their structural analogs, benzdioxolanes, in proton-donor media made it possible to associate the mechanism of the synergistic effect with the formation of ketal-alcohol complexes with the properties of surfactants that form hydrated supramolecular structures around them. Inside them, more efficiently than in a bulk medium, hot fuel radicals are deactivated with a transfer from an explosive combustion mode to a stationary one. Such a structuring effect is of general importance for the functioning of ketals in hydrophobic-hydrophilic systems, including biological media. This conclusion is confirmed by the study of cyclic ketals activity in compositions with alcohols and carboxylic acids as antibacterial agents.