They are able to act as radical scavengers via a similar process, a behaviour exploited by certain polymerisation inhibitors. Quinone methides are more polar than quinones, and therefore more chemically reactive. Simple unhindered quinone methides are short lived reactive intermediates that are not stable enough to be isolated under normal circumstances, they will trimerise in the absence of nucleophiles.[1] Sterically hindered quinone methides can be sufficiently stable to be isolated, with some examples being commercially available.