2-Benzophenones, formation

Schiff s reagent. Add about 1 ml. of SchifTs reagent to about 1 ml. of acetone and note the very slow formation of a magenta colour. Neither acetophenone nor benzophenone reacts in this way. 

Benzophenone Process. Benzophenone, (CgH5 )2C=0, reacts with ammonia to form diphenylmethanimine, (CgHg )2C=NH. In the presence of copper catalysts, this is oxidized with oxygen to benzophenone azine, (CgHg )2C=N—N=C(CgHg The formation of the imine and its... 

Upon exposure to uv light, ground-state benzophenone is excited to the ttiplet state (a diradical) which abstracts an alpha H atom from the alcohol, resulting in the formation of two separate initiating radicals. With amine H atom donors, an electron transfer may precede the H-transfer, as in ttiplet exciplex formation between benzophenone and amine (eq. 43) ... 

A-Substituted pyrroles, furans and dialkylthiophenes undergo photosensitized [2 + 2] cycloaddition reactions with carbonyl compounds to give oxetanes. This is illustrated by the addition of furan and benzophenone to give the oxetane (138). The photochemical reaction of pyrroles with aliphatic aldehydes and ketones results in the regiospecific formation of 3-(l-hydroxyalkyl)pyrroles (e.g. 139). The intermediate oxetane undergoes rearrangement under the reaction conditions (79JOC2949). 

Another ring closure, presumably initiated by attack on the heteroatom, is the formation of 1,1,3-triphenylisoindoline from diphenyldichloromethane and benzophenone imine (Scheme 60) the ability of this compound to undergo a thermal 1,5-phenyl shift, thereby forming 1,2,3-triphenylisoindole, makes this an attractive overall synthetic route (64LA(673)96). 

One of the best tests of purity of dioxane is the formation of the purple disodium benzophenone complex during reflux and its persistence on cooling. (Benzophenone is better than fluorenone for this purpose, and for the storing of the solvent.) [Carter, McClelland and Warhurst Trans Faraday Soc 56 343 I 960], TOXIC. 

Two classes of charged radicals derived from ketones have been well studied. Ketyls are radical anions formed by one-electron reduction of carbonyl compounds. The formation of the benzophenone radical anion by reduction with sodium metal is an example. This radical anion is deep blue in color and is veiy reactive toward both oxygen and protons. Many detailed studies on the structure and spectral properties of this and related radical anions have been carried out. A common chemical reaction of the ketyl radicals is coupling to form a diamagnetic dianion. This occurs reversibly for simple aromatic ketyls. The dimerization is promoted by protonation of one or both of the ketyls because the electrostatic repulsion is then removed. The coupling process leads to reductive dimerization of carbonyl compounds, a reaction that will be discussed in detail in Section 5.5.3 of Part B. 

The intermediate diphenylhydroxymethyl radical has been detected after generation by flash photolysis. Photolysis of benzophenone in benzene solution containing potential hydrogen donors results in the formation of two intermediates that are detectable, and their rates of decay have been measured. One intermediate is the PhjCOH radical. It disappears by combination with another radical in a second-order process. A much shorter-lived species disappears with first-order kinetics in the presence of excess amounts of various hydrogen donors. The pseudo-first-order rate constants vary with the structure of the donor with 2,2-diphenylethanol, for example, k = 2 x 10 s . The rate is much less with poorer hydrogen-atom donors. The rapidly reacting intermediate is the triplet excited state of benzophenone. 

An ingenious synthesis of 1-arylisoindolcs has been developed by Vebor and Lwowski, based upon the reaction of an o-phthalimido-methylbenzophenone (41, R = aryl) with hydrazine (Table IV). The benzophenone is prepared by a Friedel-Crafts reaction with o-phthalimidomethylbenzoyl chloride (40). The mechanism of isoindole formation can be represented sehematically by a sequence involving attack by hydrazine at the imide to give the ring-opened hj drazide (42), followed by cyclization to phthalazine-l,4-dione (44) with displacement of the o-aminomethylbenzophenone (43). Intramolecular condensation of the latter can lead, via the isoindolenine... 

Chloro-5-nitrobenzaldehyde, -acetophenone, or -benzophenone derivatives treated with 2-aminothiophenol under alkaline conditions provided good yields of the corresponding dibenzo[(3,/][l,4]thiepins. Similar treatment of 2-chloro-3,5-dinitrobenzophenone (318) provided 58% of dibenzo[(3,/][l,4]thiepin 321 and 20% of phenothiazine 323. Its formation can be easily explain by the Smiles rearrangement of the initially formed intermediate 320 into diphenylamine derivative 322, followed by denitrocyclization reaction leading to the corresponding product of denitrocyclization 323 (Scheme 49). When the reaction was done in pyridine, only this product was isolated in 50% yield (57JCS3818). 

The reaction between Cell—O radical and vinyl monomers leads to the formation of grafted cellulose. In the presence of photosensitizers generally used as photoinitiators, such as benzophenone and phenylace-tophenone derivatives, the photoinitiator absorbs the UV radiation and transforms to its singlet (S ) and then triplet (T ) states. After that it may decompose into free radicals or transfer its energy to cellulose or any other molecules in the system. Take benzophenone as an example ... 

The pinacol formation reaction follows a radical mechanism. Benzopinacol, benzophenone and the mixed pinacol are formed jointly with many radical species [72, 74]. In the course of the reaction, first a high-energy excited state is generated with the aid of photons. Thereafter, this excited-state species reacts with a solvent molecule 2-propanol to give two respective radicals. The 2-propanol radical reacts with one molecule of benzophenone (in the ground state, without photon aid) to lengthen the radical chain. By combination of radicals, adducts are formed, including the desired product benzopinacol. Chain termination reactions quench the radicals by other paths. 

The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the lifetime of the benzophenone triplet in benzene is shorter than in other inert solvents due to the formation of a diradical species with the solvent which happens to absorb in the same region as the benzophenone triplet itself and the ketyl radical. Thus the advent of nanosecond flash spectrometry has allowed the solution of an interesting and difficult problem. 

A number of different mechanisms have been proposed to account for the fact that this product is not observed. Recently, however, a report appeared that described the formation of the mixed pinacol from the photoreduction of benzophenone with isopropyl alcohol and the photoreduction of acetone with benzhydrol. The data from this study are presented in Table 3.10.(73)... 

Since the phosphorescence emission from (6) (68.8 kcal/mole) is very similar in energy and vibrational structure to benzophenone, and has a short lifetime (0.5 msec), it was proposed that the photorearrangement takes place via the triplet state. A Zimmerman-like mechanism is as follows for the formation of the cyclopropyl ketone (7) from dienone (6) ... 

Attempts to sensitize the rearrangement with benzophenone, propiophenone, and chlorobenzene failed, as indicated in Table 8.1. Although the reaction could not be sensitized, triplet energy transfer was taking place inasmuch as compound (1) quenched the photoreduction of benzophenone without the formation of any new products (Table 8.2). 

Dimers (73) and (74) were formed in approximately equal amounts in all cases, although, as in the cases of 2-cyclopentenone and 2-cyclohexenone, the relative amount of (72) (either cis-syn-cis or cis-anti-cis) was found to vary substantially with solvent polarity. As in 2-cyclopentenone, this increase in the rate of head-to-head dimerization was attributed to stabilization of the increase in dipole moment in going to the transition state leading to (72) in polar solvents. It is thought that the solvent effect in this case is not associated with the state of aggregation since a plot of Stem-Volmer plot and complete quenching with 0.2 M piperylene indicate that the reaction proceeds mainly from the triplet manifold. However, the rates of formation of head-to-head and head-to-tail dimers do not show the same relationship when sensitized by benzophenone as in the direct photolysis. This effect, when combined with different intercepts for head-to-head and head-to-tail dimerizations quenched by piperylene in the Stem-Volmer plot, indicates that two distinct excited triplet states are involved with differing efficiencies of population. The nature of these two triplets has not been disclosed. 

---