Aromatic compounds photochemical reactions

Ketones and aldehydes can undergo photochemical [2-1-2] cycloaddition reactions with alkenes to give oxetanes. This is called the Paterno-Buchi reaction. For alkyl carbonyl compounds both singlet and triplet excited states seem to be involved, but for aromatic compounds the reaction occurs through the triplet state.The regiochemistry can usually be accounted for on the basis of formation of the most stable 2-oxa-1,4-diradical. For example, styrene and benzaldehyde give 2,3- not 2,4-diphenyloxetane. ... 

We will show here the classification procedure with a specific dataset [28]. A reaction center, the addition of a C-H bond to a C=C double bond, was chosen that comprised a variety of different reaction types such as Michael additions, Friedel-Crafts alkylation of aromatic compounds by alkenes, or photochemical reactions. We wanted to see whether these different reaction types can be discerned by this... 

The photochemical reactions of organic compounds attracted great interest in the 1960s. As a result, many useful and fascinating reactions were uncovered, and photochemistry is now an important synthetic tool in organic chemistry. A firm basis for mechanistic description of many photochemical reactions has been developed. Some of the more general types of photochemical reactions will be discussed in this chapter. In Section 13.2, the relationship of photochemical reactions to the principles of orbital symmetry will be considered. In later sections, characteristic photochemical reactions of alkenes, dienes, carbonyl compounds, and aromatic rings will be introduced. 

The photochemical cycloadditions of alkenes and alkynes with aromatic compounds have received by far the most attention. Yields of [2+2] cydoadducts can be good, but reaction times are often long and secondary rearrangement products are common [139, 140, 141,142, 143,144, 145,146] (equations 63-65). The pioneering mechanistic and synthetic work on aromatic photocycloadditions has been reviewed [147],... 

Several examples of [5C+1S] cycloaddition reactions have been described involving in all cases a 1,3,5-metalahexatriene carbene complex as the C5-syn-thon and a CO or an isocyanide as the Cl-synthon. Thus,Merlic et al. described the photochemically driven benzannulation of dienylcarbene complexes to produce ortho alkoxyphenol derivatives when the reaction is performed under an atmosphere of CO, or ortho alkoxyanilines when the reaction is thermally performed in the presence of an isonitrile [111] (Scheme 63). In related works, Barluenga et al. carried out analogous reactions under thermal conditions [36a, c, 47a]. Interestingly, the dienylcarbene complexes are obtained in a first step by a [2+2] or a [3S+2C] process (see Sects. 2.3 and 2.5.1). Further reaction of these complexes with CO or an isonitrile leads to highly functionalised aromatic compounds (Scheme 63). 

The photolysis of chlorinated aromatic compounds occurs by several processes which follow predictable routes 13). They frequently undergo photochemical loss of chlorine by dissociation of the excited molecule to free radicals or, alternatively, through a nucleophilic displacement reaction with a solvent or substrate molecule. Either mechanism is plausible, and the operation of one or the other may be influenced by the reaction medium and the presence of other reagents. 

PET reactions [2] can be considered as versatile methods for generating radical cations from electron-rich olefins and aromatic compounds [3], which then can undergo an intramolecular cationic cyclization. Niwa and coworkers [4] reported on a photochemical reaction of l,l-diphenyl-l, -alkadienes in the presence of phenanthrene (Phen) and 1,4-dicyanobenzene (DCNB) as sensitizer and electron acceptor to construct 5/6/6- and 6/6/6-fused ring systems with high stereoselectivity. 

Photoexcited aromatic compounds undergo substitution reactions with (non-excited) nucleophiles. The rules governing these reactions are characteristically different and often opposite to those prevailing in aromatic ground state chemistry 501a,b>, in contrast to the well known ortho/para activation in thermal aromatic substitutions, nitro groups activate the meta position in the photochemical substitution, as shown in (5.1) 502). 

There seems to be no great difference in the free energy between acyclic triene and the cyclic diene. This is because of smaller strain in the six-membered ring as compared with the four-membered one. On the other hand in 6n electron system in electrocyclic process there is more efficient absorption in the near regions of u.v. spectrum. This is why under both thermal and photochemical conditions, the (1, 6) electrocyclic reactions are reversible. Side reactions are more frequent in reversible. Side reactions are more frequent in reversible transformations of trienes than in dienes. The dehydrogenation of cyclic dienes to aromatic compounds may also occur in the thermal process. On heating cyclohexadiene yields benzene and hydrogen. 

The importance of tertiary amines in the photochemically induced electron transfer reactions has also been addressed5. Direct irradiation of aromatic or aliphatic amines often leads to the scission of C—N, N—H or C—H bonds that lead to the subsequent chemical reactions by radical pathways6. In this section, photochemical reactions of amines reported since 1978 will be considered with emphasis on photoinduced electron transfer. Photochemical reactions of inorganic and organometallic compounds will not be included unless photochemistry of amine moieties is the primary interest. 

Particular attention has been focused on the toxic effects of aromatic hydrocarbons because these chemicals have proven highly carcinogenic to humans and marine life. Of greatest concern are the PAHs, which are toxic to the benthos at the ppb level. The most common compounds are shown in Figure 28.20 their structures are based on fused aromatic rings. These high-molecular-weight compoimds are very nonpolar and, hence, have low solubilities. Once in seawater, they tend to adsorb onto particles and become incorporated in the sediments. The toxicity of PAHs is enhanced by photochemical reaction with UV radiation. Photo-activated toxicity is especially problematic in shallow-water sediments, such as found in estuaries. 

Aromatic compounds can participate in both [2+2] and [4+2] photocycloaddition reactions with uracil derivatives to give either benzocyclobutane or ethenoquinazoline (barrelene) derivatives, which can then undergo a number of subsequent photochemical reactions. The products obtained are dependent upon the reaction conditions, and thus the photocycloaddition reaction between naphthalenes 470 and l,3-dimethyl-5-fluorouracil 471 in cyclohexane gave 4a-fluoro-5,10-ethenobenzo[/]quinazolines 472 as products as a result of a [4+2] photocycloaddition (photo-Diels-Alder) reaction <2002TL3113, 2003H(61)377>. 

Radical [6 + 0] cyclization is of some importance for the preparation of polycyclic azines, but is of no significant synthetic utility for the preparation of mono- or bi-cydic compounds. Photochemical oxidative cydizations of aromatic Schiff bases (equation 49) and azo compounds (equation 50) constitute important procedures for the preparation of phenan-thridines and benzodnnolines. These reactions proceed by initial formation of the dihydro compounds and aromatization is effected with either oxygen or, preferably, iodine (present in the reaction mixture). 

Shi, J. C., and M. J. Bernhard, Kinetic Studies of Cl-Atom Reactions with Selected Aromatic Compounds Using the Photochemical Reaction-FTIR Spectroscopy Technique, hit, J. Chem. Kinet, 29, 349-358 (1997). 

The major classes of photochemical reaction for aromatic compounds are nucleophilic substitution and a range of processes that lead to non-aromatic products—valence isomerization, addition or cycloaddition reactions, and cyclization involving 6-electron systems. These five general categories of reaction will be described in the following sections, together with a few examples of more specific processes. 

Radical substitution plays a part in the thermal chemistry of aromatic compounds, but not in the photochemistry, except in so far as many radicals that attack aromatic compounds are generated by photochemical methods from other addends. The reason for this is that reactive radicals exist only in low concentrations, and electronically excited states similarly are formed only in low concentrations the rate of bimolecular reaction between two such reactive species is generally much lower than the rates of alternative processes such as attack of the radical on ground-state aromatic compounds. 

The valence isomers of aromatic compounds can. if they absorb the radiation, undergo further photochemical reaction, and under... 

Photoadditions that arise by initial excitation of the aromatic compound are not common. Benzvalenes are readily attacked by hydroxylic compounds, and so irradiation of benzene in aqueous solutions of acetic acid, for example, results in the formation of a bicydic product (and an isomer derived from it by subsequent photoisomerizationl as a result of addition to the initially formed valence isomer (3.38). A different kind of photoaddition occurs when benzenes react photochemically with amines cyclohexa-T, 4-dienes are the major products (3.39), accompanied by cyclohexa-1.3-dienes, and unlike many of the photochemical reactions of benzene this does not suffer loss of efficiency in scaling-up. 

The irradiation of benzenes with alkenes provides a fascinating array of photochemical reactions, not least because it converts the aromatic substrates into polycyclic, non-aromatic products. In principle, benzene can undergo reaction across the 1,2-(ortho). 1,3-(meta), or 1,4-(para) positions the 1,3-cycloaddition is structurally the most complex, but it is the predominant mode of reaction for many of the simplest benzene/alkene systems. The products are tricyclic compounds with a fusion of two five-membered rings and one three-membered ring, and an example is the reaction of benzene with vinyl acetate (3.411. For monosubstituted benzenes there can be a high... 

Ketones feature prominently in accounts of the earliest systematic studies of both synthetic and mechanistic organic photochemistry. They absorb in the more readily accessible wavelength ranges of the ultraviolet, so that some aromatic ketones react even in sunlight, and many of their photochemical reactions lead efficiently to products that can be easily isolated or analysed. Ketones continue to be used as substrates for many studies in photochemistry, and in general they have been more intensively studied than any other group of organic compounds. 

Postcolumn photochemical reactions are another approach to the detection problem. High-intensity UV light, generally provided by a Hg or Zn lamp, photolyzes the HPLC effluent, which passes through a Teflon (47) or quartz tube. The photolysis reaction determines the nature of the subsequent detection. If the compound has a UV chromophore, such as an aromatic ring, and an ionizable heteroatom, such as chlorine, then the products of the reaction can be detected conductometrically. Busch et al. (48) have examined more than 40 environmental pollutants for applicability to detection with photolysis and conductance detection. Haeberer and Scott (49) found the photoconductivity approach superior to precolumn derivatization for the determination of nitrosoamines in water and waste water. The primary limitation of this detection approach results from the inability to use mobile phases that contain ionic modifiers, that is, buffers and... 

---