Benzene photocycloaddition

Although exceptions to this rule are known, it is in general possible to predict, from ionization potential differences of the substrates, the preferred mode of alkene to benzene photocycloaddition for many systems. ... 

The strained undecacyclic pagodane framework was obtained in a series of 14 one-pot operations with an overall yield up to 24% from commercial isodrin. The key steps are (i) a benzene-benzene [6 -I- 6]photocycloaddition, and (ii) a domino Diels-Alder reaction. 

Whereas the cycloaddition of arylazirines with simple alkenes produces A -pyrrolines, a rearranged isomer can be formed when the alkene and the azirine moieties are suitably arranged in the same molecule. This type of intramolecular photocycloaddition was first detected using 2-vinyl-substituted azirines (75JA4682). Irradiation of azirine (54) in benzene afforded a 2,3-disubstituted pyrrole (55), while thermolysis gave a 2,5-disubstituted pyrrole (56). Photolysis of azirine (57) proceeded similarly and gave 1,2-diphenylimidazole (58) as the exclusive photoproduct. This stands in marked contrast to the thermal reaction of (57) which afforded 1,3-diphenylpyrazole (59) as the only product. 

Benzene undergoes photocycloaddition with simple olefins to produce 1,3, 1,2 and 1,4 adducts as shown below for tetramethylethylene ... 

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. ... 

There has been very little study of the photocycloaddition reaction, where the carbonyl compound was excited with light of varying wavelengths. For the simple carbonyl compounds, irradiation absorbed only by the n - it transition has been used with success. Irradiation of the more complex carbonyl compounds, for example, benzophenone, can be such that both the w and the (of the benzene chromo-... 

Furans are able to undergo photocycloaddition of the [W2S+ 2S] and the [W4S+ 4S] type to suitable substrates. With benzene (80JCS(P1)2174) five 1 1 products are obtained. The relative proportions of these products are highly variable and depend on the relative concentration of the reactants, the irradiation time, the light intensity and the temperature of the solution. For the shortest irradiation time with a low-pressure mercury lamp at 15 °C, the relative proportions are 1 1 10 40 2. The major product is the 2,5 l, 4 -adduct (301) and the next most prolific is the 2,3 l, 2 -adduct (302). Adduct (301) is unreactive to dienophiles but gives adduct (302) by Cope reaction at 60-70 °C. This reaction can also be achieved by irradiation of a cyclohexane solution of (301). Adduct (302) reacts readily with dienophiles in ethereal solution to form Diels-Alder adducts. The minor adducts possess structures (303), (304) and (305). The reaction is thought to involve the first excited triplet of benzene or an excited state complex. A [ .4s+ .4g] photoadduct (306) is formed... 

In certain cases benzene will undergo photocycloaddition to oxygen and sulfur heterocycles. The two major photoproducts of irradiation of a mixture of furan and benzene are adducts 356 and 357, arising, respectively, by [ 2 + 2] and [ 4 + 4] cycloaddition processes.306 Irradiation of benzene and 2,2-dimethyl-l,3-dioxol (358) similarly affords adducts 359 and 360, together with dimer 361.307 Thiochromone 1,1-dioxide also undergoes photoaddition to benzene.308... 

Aoyama et al. in relation to their studies on photochemical synthesis of (3-lactams [91] reported the synthesis of 4-spirocyclopropylazetidin-2-one [92] via photocycloaddition of 4-thioxoazetidin-2-one to alkenes followed by subsequent desulfurization. A solution of 1-isopropyl-3-phenyl-4-thioxoazetidin-2-one 70 and 1,1-diphenylethylene in benzene on irradiation with a high pressure mercury lamp afforded a [2 + 2] adduct 72 (R = Ph), in 67% yield which, on desulfurization with Raney-nickel [93] in anhydrous ethanol gave two isomeric... 

Ortho Photocycloaddition of Alkenes and Alkynes to the Benzene Ring... 

Cycloaddition of alkenes to the benzene ring does not occur when both molecules are in their ground electronic states. The reaction can only be brought about by photoexcitation of either of the two addends. Three types of photochemical cycloaddition of alkenes to benzene and its derivatives are presently known. Ortho photocycloaddition, also referred to as 1,2-photocycloaddition or [2 + 2] photocycloaddition, leads to bicyclo[4.2.0]octa-2,4-dienes. Meta photocycloaddition, also referred to as 1,3-photocycloaddition or [2 + 3] photocycloaddition, gives triyclo[3.3.0.02 8]oct-3-enes, also named l,2,2a,2b,4a,4b-hexahydrocyclo-propa[crf]pcn(alcnes. Para photocycloaddition, also referred to as 1,4-photocy-cloaddition or [2 + 4] photocycloaddition, results in bicyclo[2.2.2]octa-2,5-... 

Scheme 1 Ortho, meta, and para photocycloaddition of ethene and benzene.

Ortho photocycloaddition was first reported in a U.S. patent [1] dated September 3, 1957. Irradiation of benzonitrile in the presence of various alkenes resulted in the formation of derivatives of l-cyanobicyclo[4.2.0]octa-2,4-diene. The first ortho photocycloaddition to benzene was reported in 1959 by Angus and Bryce-Smith [2], who discovered that benzene and maleic anhydride react to form a stable adduct at 60°C under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. This 1 2 adduct was formed from one molecule of benzene and two molecules of maleic anhydride. Two years later, Bryce-Smith and Lodge [3] found that acetylenes could also be photoadded to benzene. The isolated products were cyclooctatetraenes, formed by ring opening of the primarily formed bicyclo[4.2.0]octa-2,4,7-trienes. Since those early years, hundreds of examples of ortho photocycloadditions of alkenes to the benzene ring and many mechanistic investigations have been reported and they will be discussed in this chapter. 

Meta photocycloaddition was discovered simultaneously and independently by two groups in 1966. Wilzbach and Kaplan [4] found that the adducts from m-but-2-ene, cyclopentene, and 2,3-dimethylbut-2-ene with benzene are substituted tricyclo 3.3.0.02X]oct-3-enes. The adducts were formed by irradiation of solutions (-10%) of the olefins in benzene, at room temperature under nitrogen, with 2537-A light. Bryce-Smith et al. [5] subjected an equimolar mixture of m-cyclooctene at room temperature or in the solid phase at 60°C to ultraviolet radiation of wavelength 235-285 nm. A mixture of 1 1 adducts was obtained from which the main component (-85%) was readily obtained pure by treatment of the mixture with methanolic mercuric acetate. This 1 1 adduct proved to be a meta photocycloadduct (Scheme 2). The minor nonaromatic adduct (10-15%) could, at that time, not yet be obtained completely free from the meta photocycloadduct the structure of a rearranged ortho adduct was provisionally assigned to this isomer. 

Para photocycloaddition of arenes to the benzene ring was first reported in 1971 by Wilzbach and Kaplan [7] as a minor process accompanying ortho and meta photocycloaddition. Since that time, relatively few cases of para photocycloaddition have been described. Para adducts were found as minor products from benzene with cyclobutene [8], ra- 3,4 - dimethyIcycIobu(ene [9], vinylene carbonate [10], 2,3-dihydropyran [11,12], and 1,3-dioxole [13,14] and from a,a,a-tri-fluorotoluene with vinylene carbonate [15], Intermolecular para photocycloadducts were major products from the irradiations of benzene and allene [16,17], benzene and cyclonona-1,2-diene [16,17], and from fluorobenzene and cyclopentene [18], Intramolecular para photocycloadducts were found as major products from the irradiations of phenethyl vinyl ether [19-21] (Scheme 3) and 2,3-dimethyl-6-phenylhex-2-ene [22], No detailed mechanistic investigations have been published. 

In this chapter, we will be concerned with the ortho photocycloaddition of arenes to the benzene ring. This implies that photocycloadditions to larger aromatic systems and to heterocyclic aromatic molecules will not be discussed. The photoadditions of alkynes to benzene and derivatives of benzene, however, are included in this review. The material is organized in sections, according to the pathway that is followed from the ground state of the addends to the ortho photocycloadducts. 

Most of the ortho photocycloadditions of alkenes and alkynes to the benzene ring that have been reported during the past 40 years have been tabulated in the 4 major sections of this chapter. Many ortho photocycloadducts are unstable under the conditions of irradiation. In some cases, they undergo spontaneous photochemical or thermal rearrangements in other cases, the investigators add a reagent that turns the unstable ortho adduct into a more stable product that can be isolated and identified. Tables 1-7, for the sake of comparison, list the primary ortho adducts, even if they have never been isolated or detected. In Section VI, the many types of secondary reactions that ortho photocycloadducts can undergo are discussed. 

Ortho photocycloadditions proceeding via excitation of a ground-state charge-transfer complex have been reported for the combination of benzene and alkyl-benzenes with maleic anhydride. The reaction was discovered by Angus and... 

Ortho photocycloadditions of benzene derivatives to maleic anhydride have been tabulated in Table 1. Only the structures of the primary ortho adducts are given, but these are not the isolated adducts They always undergo endo [2 + 4] cycloaddition with maleic anhydride, yielding 1 2 adducts. An interesting feature to be seen from Table 1 is that substituents on the benzene (alkyl, phenyl, or halogen) always turn up at the position most remote from the site of addition. In view of the different nature of these substituents, it seems that steric rather than electronic factors are responsible for this regioselectivity. 

Ortho photocycloaddition to benzene of derivatives of acetylene and maleimide proceeds via excitation of the alkyne or the maleimide. A few other alkenes follow the same route to ortho photocycloadducts among those are dichlorovinylene carbonate and some alkenes in which the double bond is conjugated with a cyano, carbonyl, or phenyl group, which makes it possible to excite them in the presence of the arene. 

The photocycloaddition of cyclooctyne to benzene [72], producing bicy-clo[6.6.0]tetradeca-l,3,5,7-tetraene can be sensitized (with acetone) and quenched (with piperylene). The unsensitized reaction occurs with very high efficiency (56% yield at 66% conversion). Because transfer of triplet energy from acetone to benzene is improbable, the authors consider the possibility that the acetylene triplet may be the reactive species in the cycloaddition. 

Another reaction in which the excited alkene is the reactive species in ortho photocycloaddition is that of dichlorovinylene carbonate with benzene [82-84] (Scheme 15). 

Scheme 15 Ortho photocycloaddition of benzene and dichlorovinylene carbonate.

The carbon-nitrogen triple bond can also undergo ortho photocycloaddition to derivatives of benzene. Al-Jalal et al. [86] found that irradiation of 4-cyanoanisole in acrylonitrile produced three 1 1 adducts. Two of these were formed by the addition of the carbon-carbon double bond of acrylonitrile to positions 1,2 and 3,4, respectively, of 4-cyanoanisole. The third product was an aza-cyclooctatetraene, apparently formed by the addition of the carbon-nitrogen triple bond to the arene, followed by ring opening [87],... 

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