Benzophenone biradical

In the presence of a moderate hydrogen donor such as isopropanol, the oxygen-centered radical of the biradical abstracts a hydrogen atom from the a-position of isopropanol to give pinacole. For example, the benzophenone biradical, generated from the irradiation of benzophenone, abstracts a hydrogen atom from isopropanol to form an a,a-diphenyl-a-hydroxymethyl radical, which is then coupled to give benzopinacol (12) (eq. 1.5). 

Benzophenone (Amax = 340 nm, log e = 2.5, n-ir electronic transition) can be used as a photochemical reagent and eq. 4.25 shows a radical Michael-addition reaction with benzophenone. The formed benzophenone biradical (triplet state, Tx) abstracts an electron-rich a-hydrogen atom from methyl 3-hydroxypropanoate (62) to generate an electron-rich a-hydroxy carbon-centered radical [III], then its radical adds to the electron-deficient (3-carbon of a, (3-unsaturated cyclic ketone (63) through the radical Michael addition. The electrophilic oxygen-centered radical in the benzophenone biradical abstracts an electron-rich hydrogen atom from methyl 3-hydroxypropanoate (62) [70]. So, an a-hydroxy carbon-centered radical [III] is formed, and an electron-deficient a-methoxycarbonyl carbon-centered radical [III7] is not formed. 

It is well known that benzophenone generates a biradical through n-ir electronic transition under irradiation ( 340 nm). Irradiation of a mixture of 1,4-benzoquinone (34) and aromatic aldehydes in the presence of benzophenone generates 2-aroyl-l,4-dihydroxybenzene (35) [47-49]. This reaction comprises of the abstraction of a formyl hydrogen atom of an aromatic aldehyde by the oxygen-centered radical of the benzophenone biradical to form an aroyl radical and a 1,1-diphenylhydroxymethyl radical, and addition of the nucleophilic aroyl radical to 1,4-benzoquinone (34) to form a phenoxyl radical derivative, which finally abstracts a hydrogen atom from an aromatic... 

In the presence of benzophenone, (8) was again the major product (>95°/0) and only trace amounts of the cyclohexane products were produced. These results suggest the intermediacy of a singlet 1,6-hexylene biradical in the direct photolysis and a longer lived triplet 1,6-diradical in the sensitized photolysis. In the triplet biradical more time is available for 1,6-hydrogen transfer to occur prior to spin inversion and hence more olefin (8) is produced. Similar results were reported for the direct and photosensitized photolysis of the 3,8-dimethyl derivative of (7). 

Treatment of the propargylic alcohol 144, readily prepared from condensation between benzophenone (143) and the lithium acetylide 101, with thionyl chloride promoted a sequence of reactions with an initial formation of the chlorosulfite 145 followed by an SNi reaction to produce in situ the chlorinated and the benzannulated enyne-allene 146 (Scheme 20.30) [62], A spontaneous Schmittel cyclization then generated the biradical 147, which in turn underwent a radical-radical coupling to form the formal [4+ 2]-cycloaddition product 148 and subsequently, after a prototropic rearrangement, 149. The chloride 149 is prone to hydrolysis to give the corresponding 11 H-bcnzo h fluoren-ll-ol 150 in 85% overall yield from 144. Several other llff-benzo[fc]fluoren-ll-ols were likewise synthesized from benzophenone derivatives. 

The enthalpy changes associated with proton transfer in the various 4, -substituted benzophenone contact radical ion pairs as a function of solvent have been estimated by employing a variety of thermochemical data [20]. The effect of substituents upon the stability of the radical IP were derived from the study of Arnold and co-workers [55] of the reduction potentials for a variety of 4,4 -substituted benzophenones. The effect of substituents upon the stability of the ketyl radical were estimated from the kinetic data obtained by Creary for the thermal rearrangement of 2-aryl-3,3-dimethylmethylenecyclopropanes, where the mechanism for the isomerization assumes a biradical intermediate [56]. The solvent dependence for the energetics of proton transfer were based upon the studies of Gould et al. [38]. The details of the analysis can be found in the original literature [20] and only the results are herein given in Table 2.2. 

The convergent synthesis of a range of aryl ester dendrimers with peripheral tetrathiafulvalene units was also reported (Devonport et al. 1998). The dendrimers acquire some amount of the cation-radical tetrathiafulvalene tips on reacting with iodine in solutions. Another promising material is polyphenylene dendrimers functionalized with benzophenone units. On being transformed into the potassium ketyl derivatives, the dendrimers bring forth intermolecular biradicals. These technically attractive species contain four-membered cycles that coordinatively combine two potassium cations... 

Ultraviolet irradiation of oxadiazoline (38d) at 333.6 nm (or irradiation using benzophenone as a triplet sensitiser) gave 2-diazopropane and methyl acetate. A triplet biradical intermediate formed by cleavage of the C(OMe)—N bond was postulated <90TL863>. Oxadiazolinone (42) underwent nucleophilic attack at the carbonyl group by methyllithium to give acetate (41) after treatment of the product with acetyl chloride <89CJC1753>. 

A related phenomenon has been observed in the benzophenone sensitized isomerization of c/y-piperylene.150 The measured quantum yield of cis to trans isomerization increased from 0.55 to 0.90 as the concentration of piperylene increased from 0.08 to lOAf. This observation can be rationalized as arising from addition of the piperylene triplet to a ground state diene molecule to give a biradical intermediate which can either cyclize to the dimer151 or dissociate to give two molecules of the more thermodynamically stable trans-isomer. This mechanism predicts that the quantum yield for the isomerization of /runs-piperylene to cw-piperylene should decrease with increasing diene concentration, an experiment that has not yet been reported. 

The photochemical decomposition of bicyclic azo compound 43 gave the results shown in Table VII.199 200 The dependence of product composition on the stereochemistry of the starting azo compound, which was observed in direct photolysis, is removed by benzophenone or triphenylene sensitization since the intermediate triplet biradical undergoes randomization of stereo-... 

When an alkyl or aryl ketone, or an aryl aldehyde, reacts with an alkyl-substituted ethylene, or with an electron-rich alkene such as a vinyl ether, the mechanism involves attack by the (n,n triplet state of the ketone on ground-state alkene to generate a 1,4-biradical that subsequently cyclizes. The orientation of addition is in keeping with this proposal, since the major product is formed by way of the more stable of the possible biradicals, as seen for benzophenone and 2-melhylpropene (4.64). As would be expected for a triplet-state reaction, the stereoselectivity is low, and benzophenone gives the same mixture of stereoisomers when it reacts with either trans or... 

Luminescence is seldom observed from free radicals and radical ions because of the low energy of the lowest excited states of open-shell species, the benzophenone ketyl radical being however a noteworthy exception. There are few reports of actual photochemical reactions of free radicals, but the situation is different with biradicals such as carbenes. These have two unpaired electrons and can exist in singlet or triplet states and they take part in addition and insertion reactions (Figure 4.90). 

In one of the earliest reports on ortho photocycloaddition, in which the reaction of benzonitrile with 2-methylbut-2-ene is described, a diradical (triplet) intermediate was proposed [73], The structure of the product corresponds to the most stable of the four possible diradical intermediates. When benzophenone was added as a sensitizer in an attempt to increase the yield of the photoadduct, only 0.05% of ortho adduct was isolated along with 54% of an oxetane formed by the addition of benzophenone to 2-methylbut-2-ene. In the absence of benzophenone, the ortho adduct was isolated in 63% yield. It is, however, thermally as well as photochemically unstable and reverts to starting materials, supposedly also via a biradical. The authors propose that benzophenone catalyzes bond cleavage of the adduct more efficiently than ortho addition and this would account for the low yield of photoadduct in the presence of benzophenone. From these experiments, no conclusion about the identity of the reactive excited state can be drawn. 

The kinetics of the reaction is in agreement with a mechanism involving the formation of the biradical 6 following Scheme 3.6, where B is benzophenone, F is furan, (B-F) is the biradical 6, and Ox is the oxetane [28]. Subsequently, more complex carbonyl compounds were used to give the corresponding... 

As mentioned in Section 7.2, when the electron transfer reaction between electron-rich alkenes and excited carbonyl compounds is energetically favorable, the RI pair becomes an important intermediate in photochemical [2 + 2] cycloaddition reactions (Scheme 7.5). The regioselectivity of these reactions may differ from that observed for the PB reaction involving 1,4-triplet biradical intermediates. Typical examples of PB reactions with very electron-rich alkenes, ketene silyl acetals (Eox = 0.9 V vs SCE), have been reported (Scheme 7.11) [27]. Thus, 2-alkoxyoxetanes were selectively formed as a result of the PB reaction with benzaldehyde or benzophenone derivatives, whereas a selective formation of 3-alkoxyoxetanes was observed in less electron-rich alkenes (see Scheme 7.9). When p-methoxybenzalde-hyde was used in the photochemical reaction, the regioselectivity was less than that observed in the case of benzaldehyde. This dramatic decrease in regioselectivity provided evidence that the selective formation of 2-alkoxyoxetanes occurred via RI pair intermediates. It should be noted that the stereoselectivity is also completely different from that associated with triplet 1,4-biradicals (vide infra). 

Recently, a notable temperature-related effect was reported for site-selectivity (double-bond selectivity or chemoselectivity) in the PB reaction of unsymmetrically substituted furans (Scheme 7.14) [30]. For example, the selective formation of the more substituted oxetane, OX1, was observed during the PB reaction of 2-methyl-furan with benzophenone at a high temperature (61 °C). However, a 58 42 mixture of the oxetanes, 0X1 and 0X2, was reported at low temperature (—77 °C). This notable effect of temperature could be explained by the relative population of conformers of the intermediary triplet 1,4-biradicals, T-BR1 andT-BR2. The excited benzophenone was considered to attack the double bonds equally so as to produce a mixture of the conformers of T-BR1 and T-BR2 however, at low temperature the conformational change was suppressed. Thus, the site-random formation of oxetanes 0X1 and 0X2 was observed after the ISC process. Nonetheless, at high... 

In some cases, however, a high degree of stereoselectivity could be obtained even with pure triplet excited carbonyl compounds. In these cases, e.g., the photocycloaddition of benzophenone to several methyl vinyl sulphides 113, the intermediary triplet 1,4-biradical preferentially undergoes one of two possible cyclization modes after intersystem crossing (Sch. 34) [60]. 

Notably, benzophenone is not consumed since it is regenerated in the process, o-phthalaldehyde is another interesting promoter for cationic polymerization based on pyridinium salt chemistry. Scanio and co-workers reported that UV irradiation of o-phthalaldehyde leads to the formation of 1,4-biradical transients via intramolecular hydrogen abstraction [55] ... 

Trimethylenemethane biradicals have been proposed as intermediates in the photodecomposition of fluorine-substituted 4-methylenepyrazolines both in the gas phase and in solution.Evidence for the intermediacy of two trimethylenemethane biradicals on direct irradiation of the bi-(l-pyrazolin-4-ylidene) (29) has also been reported. Benzophenone-sensitized irradiation of the same pyrazoline, however, takes a different course and affords the allene dimer (30), presumably via the tetramethylene-ethane biradical (31). 

Photooxidation suitable for the epoxidation of aromatic olefins also occurs with a-diketones (benzil, biacetyl), benzophenone, benzoin, and a-ketoacids, Isotopic mechanistic studies point to a reaction via a biradical. Photooxidation with an a-diketone or a-ketoacid recently has been interpreted in terms of a photochemical a-cleavage leading to an acylperoxy radical, which can effectively transfer an oxygen atom to olefins. Vinylallenes have similarly been photooxidized in the presence of biacetyl. ... 

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