Alkylation electron transfer sensitization

Figure 3.11 Alkylation via radicals generated through electron transfer sensitization mechanism.

A range of examples of alkylation reactions via radicals generated through electron transfer sensitization is available in the literature, and a few of them are reported in Figure 3.12. Alkyl tin derivatives can be used as precursors, but in many cases these highly toxic reagents can be advantageously substituted by... 

Cycloadditions only proceeding after electron transfer activation via the radical cation of one partner are illustrated by the final examples. According to K. Mizono various bis-enolethers tethered by long chains (polyether or alkyl) can be cyclisized to bicyclic cyclobutanes using electron transfer sensitizer like dicyanonaphthalene or dicyano-anthracene. Note that this type of dimerization starting from enol ethers are not possible under triplet sensitization or by direct irradiation. Only the intramolecular cyclization ci the silane-bridged 2>. s-styrene can be carried out under direct photolysis. E. Steckhan made use of this procedure to perform an intermolecular [4+2] cycloaddition of indole to a chiral 1,3-cyclohexadiene. He has used successfully the sensitizer triphenylpyrylium salt in many examples. Here, the reaction follows a general course which has been developed Bauld and which may be called "hole catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction". 

Electrogenerated monovalent Co complexes of the well-known open chain N202 Schiff base ligands salen (8), salphen (9), and their substituted derivatives undergo oxidative additions with alkyl halides. Reactions of the complex with substrates within the series RBr (R = Pr, Bu, t-Bu) proceed at different rates. The reaction occurs by an inner-sphere alkyl-bridged electron transfer, with a Co1- R+- X-transition state, which is sensitive to distortions of the complex in different configurations.124... 

As described above, the arrangement of the various functional moieties was controlled spatially across the films at molecular dimensions in the form of LB films. In a series of folded type of sensitizer (S) and electron-donor (D) dyads in a previous work, however, the dyad molecules in the LB films can take many conformations due to flexibility of the longer alkyl chain of the dyads so that clear dependence of the photoinduced electron transfer rate on the alkyl chain length, i.e. S-D distance, was not observed [2], By this reason, we are studying the chain length dependence by using a series of linear type S-D dyads, in which the S and D moieties were linked by a single alkyl chain. In the closely packed LB films, the alkyl chain was considered to be extended and the distance between S and D to be... 

It has been shown that a complete shift in stereochemistry of the nucleophilic reactions of (29), with alkyl halides such as 2-bromobutane or cis-2-bromomethoxycyclohexane, from racemization to complete inversion, is induced by increase in the inner-sphere stabilization of the transition state from 0 to 3 kcal mol" This has been ascribed to competition between inner-sphere 5)vr2 and outer-sphere electron-transfer processes the former being extremely sensitive towards inner-sphere stabilization. 

Since the efficiency of fluorescence quenching of the sensitizer paralleled the oxidizability of the arene in a series of substituted alkyl benzenes, the reaction was thought to proceed through electron transfer followed by protonation and trapping of the radical by oxygen. 

At low light flux, the semiconductor sensitization is constrained to one electron routes, since the valence band hole is annihilated by a single electron transfer. Presumably after decarboxylation the resulting alkyl radical can be reduced to the observed monodecarboxylate more rapidly than it can transfer a second electron to form the alkene. In a conventional electrochemical cell, in contrast, the initially formed radical is held at an electrode poised at the potential of the first oxidation so that two-electron products cannot be avoided and alkene is isolated in fair chemical yield. Other contrasting reactivity can be expected for systems in which the usual electrochemistry follows multiple electron paths. 

As a first example, the photochemical synthesis of substituted 1,2-dihydro-[60]fullerenes will be discussed. These compounds can be synthesized by various photochemical reaction pathways. In the first one the radical cation Qo is involved in the reaction. In 1995, Schuster et al. reported the formation of C6o radical cations by photosensitized electron transfer that were trapped by alcohols and hydrocarbons to yield alkoxy or alkyl substituted fullerene monoadducts as major products [211], Whereas Foote et al. used N-methylacridinium hexafluorophos-phate NMA+ as a sensitizer and biphenyl as a cosensitizer [167], Schuster et al. used 1,4-dicyanoanthracene (DCA) as a sensitizer for the generation of C 6o- The... 

An electron transfer mechanism has been proposed to account for the formation of carbon dioxide on irradiation of alkyl pyruvates the yield of carbon dioxide is enhanced by the presence of electron acceptors such as methyl viologen. The dye-sensitized photo-oxidation of a-oxo-carboxylic acids and esters also leads to the production of carbon dioxide. An initial dye-substrate interaction rather than singlet oxygen appears to be responsible for this fragmentation. 

The parent cyclopropane system does not, in fact, readily undergo electron transfer in solution apparently, the excited state reduction potentials of most sensitizers are too low (Table 3). However, introducing simple alkyl substituents increases the donor capacity of the cyclopropane system. This is aptly shown by the (gas-phase) ionization potential of 1,1-dimethylcyclopropane (9.0 eV) compared with that of cyclopropane (9.87 eV). PET from a series of methyl-substituted cyclopropanes to photoexcited chloranil was probed in solution. These experiments failed to provide evidence for electron transfer from cis- or rrans-1,2-dimethylcyclopropane. On the other hand, 1,1,2-trimethyl- and 1,1,2,2-tetramethylcyclopropane were oxidized [108, 109]. 

C-F bonds are normally difficult to reduce, but it has now been shown that such bonds a to the carbonyl group of alkyl perfluoroesters can be photoreduced in hexamethylphosphorotriamide in a reaction which involves electron transfer from excited phosphoramide (Portella and Iznaden). Several reports of the photoreduction of carbon dioxide have appeared for photoreduction to methane see Yamase and Sugeta, and Diirr et al. for reduction to formate see Lehn and Ziessel, and Matsuoka et al. Gollnick and Held have reported that mercurochrome is an efficient sensitizer for type II singlet oxygen photo-oxygenations. 

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