Anthracene radical-cation salt

Lewis acids such as A1C13, SbCl5, or PFS have been used successfully to generate a variety of radical cations. Antimony pentachloride was first used with hydrocarbons such as benzene or anthracene [22, 23]. Salts obtained from aromatic amines with this reagent were found to be paramagnetic [24] eventually, well resolved ESR spectra identified the formation of radical cations [25,26]. Although an electron transfer mechanism must be involved, the fate of the complementary radical anions and details of their decay are poorly understood. Once again, it appears doubtful that Lewis acids are suitable oxidants for the study of the sometimes delicate substrates discussed in this review. 

Pyridine may react as a nucleophile with radical cations to pyridinium salts, as in the electrolysis of anthracene in acetonitrile-pyridine which yields a bis-pyridinium-adduct 283 With tris (p-methoxyphenyl)ethylene a tripositive tripyridinium cation is formed (Eq. (124) ) 284 ... 

Various compounds were shown to sensitize the photochemical decomposition of pyridinium salts. Photolysis of pyridinium salts in the presence of sensitizers such as anthracene, perylene and phenothiazine proceeds by an electron transfer from the excited state sensitizer to the pyridinium salt. Thus, a sensitizer radical cation and pyridinyl radical are formed as shown for the case of anthracene in Scheme 15. The latter rapidly decomposes to give pyridine and an ethoxy radical. Evidence for the proposed mechanism was obtained by observation of the absorption spectra of relevant radical cations upon laser flash photolysis of methylene chloride solutions containing sensitizers and pyridinium salt [64]. Moreover, estimates of the free energy change by the Rehm-Weller equation [65] give highly favorable values for anthracene, perylene, phenothiazine and thioxanthone sensitized systems, whilst benzophenone and acetophenone seemed not to be suitable sensitizers (Table 5). The failure of the polymerization experiments sensitized by benzophenone and acetophenone in the absence of a hydrogen donor is consistent with the proposed electron transfer mechanism. 

It is well known that cyano derivatives of anthracene form charge transfer (CT) complexes with certain aromatic compounds. It was reported [67] that the radical cations formed upon irradiation of these complexes played an important role in initiation of cationic polymerization of cyclic ethers. Pyridinium salts were also found [68] to form CT complexes with hexamethyl benzene and trimethoxy benzene which result in the formation of a new absorption band at longer wavelengths where both donor and acceptor molecules have no absorption. This way the light sensitivity of the pyridinium salts may be extended towards the visible range. According to the results obtained from the... 

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". 

For instance, NOBF4 oxidation of benzo[a]pyrene (BP, the additional benzene ring is fused at positions 7 and 8 of pyrene) generates the BP+ BF4 salt. When this cation-radical salt is attacked with nucleophiles of various strengths, the pattern of nucleophilic substitution reflects the distribution of a positive charge in the cation-radical part of the salt. This positive charge is localized mainly at the meio-anthracenic position, that is, at the C-6 atom. Nucleophiles (Nu ) such as OH , AcO , and F enter this position (Scheme 3.68). 

One additional example involves alkylation of the lithium salt of the anthracene anion-radical by 2-octyl fluoride (Herbert et al. 1985). The akylation does not occur in DME (which strongly solvates Li+), whereas it is facilitated and leads to the quantitative yield in diethyl ether. Diethyl ether is much less active at solvation of the lithium cation. That makes >CH-F Li+ coordination possible and assists the formation of octylanthracene. 

Scheme 4 describes the electron transfer photosensitization of iodonium salts by anthracene [61,70,91-94]. Singlet anthracene reacts with diphenyliodonium cation by diffusion controlled electron transfer in acetonitrile solution. In-cage decomposition of diphenyliodo radical competes with rapid back electron transfer to yield the singlet radical pair of anthracene cation... 

Dektar and Hacker have studied the sensitized photolysis of sulfonium salts extensively [70,83]. Like diphenyliodonium cation, triphenylsulfonium is reduced by anthracene singlet to triphenylsulfur radical which cleaves incage to yield phenyl radical and diphenylsulfide [91]. Naphthalene sensitized photolysis of triarylsulfonium salts yielded some of the same photoproducts observed in direct photolysis, namely arylated diarylsulfides [94a] ... 

The spectrophotometric technique determines K whenever the fraction of free ions is very low. The concentration of the free ions may be reduced to an insignificant level by the addition of some readily dissociated salt sharing a common cation with the investigated radical anion. On the other hand, the potentiometric technique yields K, and its value can be used to calculate K if the necessary dissociation constants are known. These constants may be derived from conductometric data (5). For an anthracene and pyrene pair incorporating Na+ as the counterion and tetrahydrofuran (THF) as the solvent, the ratio of equation 8 is only 1.6, which is equivalent to 10 millivolts (mV). However, for an anthracene and naphthalene pair, the ratio is 30.3, which is equivalent to 90 mV. 

Knowledge of how aluminum chloride oxidizes aromatics to cation radicals is practically non-existent. At one time it seemed that a nitro compound was a necessary co-acceptor (Buck et al., 1960) and that, whereas with mononuclear alkylaromatics, the Lewis acid-nitro compound pair formed only charge transfer complexes (Brown and Grayson, 1953), complete electron transfer occurred with more easily oxidized aromatics. But, cation-radical formation from perylene, anthracene, and chrysene was found to occur in carbon disulfide, chloroform, and benzene solutions, too (Rooney and Pink, 1961) and even occurs on warming anthracene and naphthacene with solid aluminum chloride (Sato and Aoyama, 1973). There is no doubt that a nitro compound enhances electron transfer, however (Sullivan and Norman, 1972). Cation radical formation in AlCl3-nitromethane has been estimated as approximately 100% as compared with 1% in sulfuric acid oxidation of dialkoxybenzenes (Forbes and Sullivan, 1966). Unfortunately, aluminum halide salts have not been isolated and, therefore, even the beginnings of analytical data have yet to be collected. There is no definite knowledge of either the nature of the counter ion or the fate of the electrons in these cation-radical formations. 

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