Benzene-1,4-biradical

The absorption around 320 nm due to the substituted benzyl type polymer radical and the absorption around 500 nm due to the complex of benzene and chlorine atom are formed within a 2 ns time scale of the electron pulse. The benzene biradical and the complex of SNR and chlorine atom may also be produced. 

Enediynes can condense to 1,4-benzene biradicals, known as the Bergmann cyclization, and abstract hydrogens from, e.g., the sugar backbone of DNA to form benzene (Fig. 2.45), and are thus often used in antibiotic studies [122, 123]. The cyclization rate strongly depends on the distance between the acetylene termini (J), which can be decreased by metal complexation [124]. 

Molecules 1,4-CHDN 1,3-CHDN BCE benzene -I- H2 BCE/allyl biradical... 

The photolysis of 3-( p-cyanophenyl)-2-isoxazoline in benzene produced a tricyclic product along with six other materials (Scheme 46) (B-79MI41616). Irradiation of the bicyclic 2-isoxazoline (155) produced benzonitrile, /3-cyanonaphthalene and polymer via a proposed biradical intermediate (156) (Scheme 47) (B-79MI41615). 

Irradiation of benzene and certain of its derivatives results in bond reorganization and formation of nonaromatic products. Irradiation of liquid benzene with light of 254-nm wavelength results in the accumulation of fulvene and a very small amount of tricy-clo[3.1.0.0 ]hex-3-ene, also known as benzvalene. The maximum conversion to this product in liquid benzene is about 0.05%. The key intermediate is believed to be a biradical formed by 1,3-bonding. 

Although this mechanism could explain the inertness of di-t-butyl sulphide towards oxidation due to the absence of a-hydrogen atoms, it was later ruled out by Tezuka and coworkers They found that diphenyl sulphoxide was also formed when diphenyl sulphide was photolyzed in the presence of oxygen in methylene chloride or in benzene as a solvent. This implies that a-hydrogen is not necessary for the formation of the sulphoxide. It was proposed that a possible reactive intermediate arising from the excited complex 64 would be either a singlet oxygen, a pair of superoxide anion radical and the cation radical of sulphide 68 or zwitterionic and/or biradical species such as 69 or 70 (equation 35). 

We have also examined the behavior of copolymers of o-tolyl vinyl ketone and methyl vinyl ketone (CoMT). In this case the light is absorbed exclusively at the aromatic carbonyl chromophore and the reaction proceeds from this site, while the methyl vinyl ketone moieties provide a relatively constant environment but prevent energy migration along the chain. The values of Tg and Tip in benzene have been included in Table II. These copolymers axe also soluble in some polar solvents for example, we have used a mixture of acetonitrile acetone methanol (30 30 Uo, referred to as AAM). This mixture is also a good solvent for the electron acceptor paraquat (PQ++) which has been shown to be good biradical trap in a number of other systems (9.). 

Figure 2. Biradical decay for PTVK in benzene, and first-order fit of the data...

Another study16 investigates the effect of benzene ring fusion on the reactivity of 1,2-Oxathietane. Ab initio calculations were performed using the 3-21G and the 6-31G basis sets, at Hartree-Fock and MP2 calculational levels. It was found that the allowed (8s + 2s) cycloreversion is unfavorable energetically. A subsequent experimental and theoretical study17 favors biradical intermediates in the valence tautomerism of benzoxathiete to monothio-o-benzoquinone. 

It behaves, hardly surprisingly, very like PhjC- cf. p. 300), existing out of solution as a colourless solid, but this latter is probably a polymer rather than a dimer as with Ph3C. The solid is dissociated in solution to about the same extent as the PhjC- dimer. The unpaired electrons in the biradical form (135) cannot interact with each other to form a wholly paired, diamagnetic sjwcies, as such interaction across both central benzene nuclei would necessitate m-quinoid forms that cannot exist the electrons are thus internally insulated from each other. Such internal insulation in biradicals may also arise through steric rather than electronic causes. Thus the species (136) exists in solution as a biradical to the extent of w 17 %, being in equilibrium with a polymer (like 135) ... 

Scheme 60). Griesbeck et al. assume that in a non-polar solvent such as benzene the intramolecular electron transfer from the methionic sulfur group is much faster than the abstraction of hydrogen from the hydroxyl group of the unprotected amino acid. C-Hydrogen abstraction leads to 313, whereas previous lactonization of the zwitterionic biradical 311 yields 314. Since the cis-hydroxy acid is not detected it is conceivable that it cyclizes immediately to the lactone 314. Photolysis of the corresponding methyl ester under the same conditions attains improved yields (84% combined) of two diastereomeric tricyclic products in a ratio of 48 52. 

Scheme 3.37 describes gas-phase generation of m-benzyne anion (the distonic anion-biradical) from m-bis(trimethylsilyl) benzene (Wenthold et al. 1994, 1996 Wenthold and Squires 1998). The same anion-biradical is formed from isophthalic acid under the same conditions (Reed et al. 2000). Particularly, the reaction of m-bis(trimethylsilyl) benzene with fluoride ion, followed by treatment of the formed trimethylsilyl phenyl anion with fluorine in helium, produces the anion-biradical mentioned. The latter is transformed into the corresponding nitro benzoate anion through the addition of CO2 and NO2 (Scheme 3.37). 

The synthesis of li7-cyclopropa[/]phenanthrene (142) presented unexpected difficulties and met many failures. Early approaches used a variety of schemes which were not adequate for this highly reactive compound and invariably produced ring-opened products. Thus irradiation of the substituted indazole 138 resulted in nitrogen extrusion and formation of the biradical 139, which reacted with the solvent, benzene, to form 140. The desired cycloproparene 141 was not formed. Ring contraction of 144, in turn, produced derivatives of 9-phenanthroic acid, the formation of which was shown not to involve phenanthrocyclopropenone (143). °° The attempted 1/3/elimination of 145 was similarly unsuccessful and afforded no 142. ... 

The photoreactivity of o-methyl acetophenone 11 has been studied exten-sively it is somewhat different from 1 because the singlet excited ketone (Sik) in 11 intersystem crosses to its triplet state in less than quantitative yields, as observed for 1 (Scheme 8). Thus, Sik in 11 decays by both intramolecular H-atom abstraction to form exclusively photoenol Z-13 and intersystem crossing to Tik of 11. Haag et al. estimated that Tik of 11 has a lifetime of 10 ns in benzene and decays by intramolecular H-atom abstraction to form biradical 12. The maximum... 

Finally, some diradicals can be made in situ by an internal hydrogen-transfer reaction from a suitable hydrogen donor to a carbene or nitrene. In benzene derivatives, this is a well-tested route to o-quinoid compounds, which are not biradicals, although a biradical valence structure probably makes a significant contribution to their electronic structure. However, if the donor and the carbene or nitrene are... 

Although valence isomerization reactions of aromatic compounds have found little by the way of practical application, they are a fascinating area for mechanistic and theoretical study. The details are not completely dear, but it seems that, for benzene itself, benzvalene arises from the lowest excited singlet state, perhaps by way of a biradical intermediate (3.32) that could also be a precursor to fulvene bicyclohexadiene is probably produced from the second excited singlet state. For some other aromatic compounds the electronic nature of 5, and S2 may be reversed, or at least the states are much closer in energy, so that the preference for benzvalene or bicyclohexadiene formation under conditions of long-wavelength irradiation can be rationalized. 

Rather phase-insensitive Norrish II photoproduct ratios are reported from irradiation of p-chloroacetophenones with a-cyclobutyl, a-cyclopentyl, a-cycloheptyl, a-cyclooctyl, and a-norbonyl groups [282], In each case, the E/C and cyclobutanol photoproduct ratios are nearly the same in neat crystals as measured in benzene or acetonitrile solutions. On this basis, we conclude that the reaction cavity plays a passive role in directing the shape changes of these hydroxy-1,4-biradicals. As long as the initial ketone conformation within the cavity permits -/-hydrogen abstraction (and these ketones may be able to explore many conformations even within their triplet excited state lifetime), the cavity free volume and flexibility allow intramolecular constraints to mandate product yields. 

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