Photocycloaddition reactions arene-alkene

Arene-alkene photocycloaddition reactions have been reviewed in detail. This review includes a tabular survey, synthetic applications and exhaustive bibliography. Many of the reactions considered in this review were however performed to determine answers to mechanistic questions, therefore they are not necessarily optimized and chemical yields are not indicated. Tables 2 and 3 bring together, from the references cited in the review , those intermolecular photochemical meta cycloadditions which are principally synthetic methods. More concise general treatments of this reaction have since been published, as have other papers mainly concerned with its mechanistic aspects. """ ... 

Keese and coworkers have also used the intermolecular arene-alkene photocycloaddition reaction as a key step in another route to [5.5.5.5]fenestranes. Irradiation of 84 gave a mixture of products from which the desired adduct 85 could be isolated. Structure and stereochemistry of this tricyclic ester are supported both by earlier experience with the... 

Wender PA, Siggel L, Nuss JM (1989) Arene-alkene photocycloaddition reactions. Org Photochem 10 357-473... 

Wender, P. A., Siggel, L., and Nuss, J. M., Arene-alkene photocycloaddition reactions, Org. Photo-chem., 10, 357,1989. 

Chappell, D. and Russell, A.T. (2006) From a-cedrene to crinipellin B and onward 25 years of the alkene-arene meta-photocycloaddition reaction in natural product synthesis. Organic tg Biomolecular Chemistry, 4 (24), 4409-4430. 

Furthermore, the occurrence of an exciplex intermediate is assumed an empirical correlation based on the AG t values calculated from the Weller relation. Equation (5.28), has been established which allows the prediction of mode selectivity for a wide range of arene-alkene photocycloadditions (Mattay, 1987). For negative or very small values of AGet. addition is preferred over cycloaddition. This is the case for the reactions of certain electron-rich alkenes with excited arenes. For positive values of AGet. cycload-... 

Chappell, D., Russell, A. T., From a Cedrene to Crinipellin B and Onward 25 Years of the Alkene Arene m Photocycloaddition Reaction in Natural Product Synthesis, Org. Biomol. Chem. 2006, 4, 4409 4430. 

The synthetic applications 440) and mechanistic aspects 4411 of intermolecular photocycloaddition reactions of arenes to olefins have been reviewed recently. Intramolecular cycloadditions442a,b) have been studied in the context of the photochemical behaviour of bichromophoric molecules, as to investigate interchromophoric interactions in polyfunctional molecules. Three types of addition products can be formed in the photocycloaddition of benzene to an alkene (4.37)441. ... 

Ortho photocycloaddition reactions proceeding via excitation of the arene followed by intersystem crossing to the triplet state and reactions with the alkene have been reported by Wagner [93-103], Gilbert [104,105], Pete [106], and their co-workers. 

The possibility of the intermediacy of the triplet state of benzene itself has been discussed by Atkins et al. [108], Photoaddition of alkenes to arenes is often accompanied by the formation of dimers of the alkene, a reaction sensitized by triplet benzene. With methyl acrylate and methyl vinyl ketone, however, it was found that the ratio of ortho cycloadducts to alkene dimers increased with the concentration of benzene. Because the yield of T, benzene increases with benzene concentration, these results might indicate that ortho photocycloaddition of aery-... 

While the meta photocycloaddition occurs at the n,n singlet state of the arene [4], different cases must be distinguished for the ortho cycloaddition depending on the structure of the substrates [5] (a) excitation of a ground state charge-transfer complex (b) excitation of the alkene (or alkyne) reaction partner (c) excitation of the arene partner and reaction at the singlet state and (d) excitation of the arene followed by intersystem crossing and reaction with the alkene at the triplet state. 

Some years ago Cornelisse reported that deuteration of alkyl benzenes results in a deuterium isotope effect upon the quantum yield of the meta photocycloaddition reaction with alkenes. In a new report the same group has published an analysis describing how the observed isotope effect upon the reaction quantvun yield can be ascribed to a kinetic deuterium isotope effect on the excited state reaction and distinguished from an effect upon the unimolecular photophysical modes of decay of the excited state. In addition, it is reported that when the quantum yield of meta photocycloaddition of cyclopentene to alkyl benzenes is measured using a mixture of deuterated and non-deuterated benzenes, the quantum yield is arene concentration dependent.The authors argue that this arises from competition between cycloaddition and the formation of mixed excimers between deuterated and non-deuterated alkyl benzenes which dissociate to yield excited deuterated alkyl benzene and ground state non-deuterated alkyl benzene preferentially. 

The photocycloaddition mechanism, and consequently the reaction selectivity, may vary considerably depending on the structure of the initial material and reaction conditions. In general, an excited arene and a ground-state alkene may react with initial polarization to form an exciplex.802 In [2 + 2] photocycloaddition reactions, biradical intermediates are often involved (Scheme 6.80a), although excitation of a ground-state charge-transfer (CT) complex (Section 2.2.3) has also been discussed in some cases, such as the [2 + 2] photocycloaddition of benzene with maleic anhydride (Scheme 6.80b).817 Here a zwitterion intermediate 194 collapses to the adduct 195 only in the absence of an acid. 

Wender, P. A. and Dore, T. M., A formal synthesis of crinipellin B based on the arene-alkene meta-photocycloaddition reaction. Tetrahedron Lett., 39, 8589, 1998. 

Cyclobutane formation via light-induced [2 + 2] cycloaddition is probably one of the best studied photochemical reactions and has been reviewed thoroughly up to 1972 (Houben-Weyl, Vols. 4/5 a and 4/5 b). The most important types of C —C double-bond chromophores undergoing such reactions arc alkenes, 1,3-dienes, styrenes, stilbenes, arenes, hetarenes, cycloalk-2-enones, cyclohexa-2,4(and 2,5)-dienones, 1,4-benzoquinones, and heteroanalogs of these cyclic unsaturated carbonyl compounds. For p notocyciodimerizations see Houben-Weyl, Vol. 4/5 a, p 278 and for mixed [2 + 2] photocycloadditions of these same chromophores to alkenes see Section 1.3.2.3. 

Section V describes ortho photocycloadditions of mostly simple alkenes that do not form ground-state complexes with arenes, do not absorb light in the presence of the arenes, and add to the arene in its singlet excited state. Mechanistic investigations, including the search for intermediates (ground-state complexes, excited states, exciplexes, zwitterions), the formulation of empirical rules, and theoretical descriptions of the reaction, have mostly been concerned with this type of ortho addition. Therefore, this section is divided into a number of subsections, each describing a particular aspect of ortho photocycloaddition. 

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