Chemiluminescence chemiexcitation mechanism

Clearly, a detailed knowledge of the electron-transfer process is required if more effective CIEEL-triggerable chemiluminescent systems are to be rationally designed, rather than engage in an empirical trial-and-error hunt. To understand the excited-state generation process, the nature of the CIEEL emitter and the chemiexcitation mechanism should be established. 

Dioxetanes have been the sole subject of several specialized reviews in recent years (Bartlett and Landis, 1979 Horn et al., 1978-79 Adam, 1977 T. Wilson, 1976 Turro et al., 1974a Mumford, 1975). These articles cover with depth which is not possible here such topics as (1) preparation, (2) physical and spectroscopic characterization, (3) experimental techniques, especially for the study of chemiluminescence, (4) mechanisms of decomposition and chemiexcitation, (5) ground state transformations, and (6) reactions involving dioxetanes as postulated intermediates. The interested reader is referred to these articles for details on these specialized topics, and for some interesting historical perspectives. 

Chemiluminescence has been studied extensively (2) for several reasons (/) chemiexcitation relates to fundamental molecular interactions and transformations and its study provides access to basic elements of reaction mechanisms and molecular properties (2) efficient chemiluminescence can provide an emergency or portable light source (J) chemiluminescence provides means to detect and measure trace elements and pollutants for environmental control, or clinically important substances (eg, metaboHtes, specific proteins, cancer markers, hormones, DNA) and (4) classification of the hioluminescent relationship between different organisms defines their biological relationship and pattern of evolution. 

Since its discovery by Chandross and to this day, peroxy-oxalate chemiluminescence has been controversial because of its enormous complexity in view of the many alternative steps involved in this process. The principal mechanistic feature of the peroxy-oxalate chemiluminescence pertains to the base-catalyzed (commonly imidazole) reaction of an activated aryl oxalate with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a chemiluminescent activator, usually a highly fluorescent aromatic hydrocarbon with a low oxidation potential . A variety of putative high-energy peroxide intermediates have been proposed for the generation of the excited states . In the context of the present chapter, it is of import to mention that recent work provides experimental evidence for the intervention of the 1,2-dioxetanedione 18 (Scheme 11) as the high-energy species responsible for the chemiexcitation. Furthermore, clear-cut experimental data favor the CIEEL mechanism as a rationalization of the peroxy-oxalate chemiluminescence . 

The main features of the chemiluminescence mechanism are exemplarily illustrated in Scheme 11 for the reaction of bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl)oxalate (TCPO) with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of imidazole (IMI-H) as base catalyst and the chemiluminescent activators (ACT) anthracene, 9,10-diphenylanthracene, 2,5-diphenyloxazole, perylene and rubrene. In this mechanism, the replacement of the phenolic substituents in TCPO by IMI-H constitutes the slow step, whereas the nucleophilic attack of hydrogen peroxide on the intermediary l,l -oxalyl diimidazole (ODI) is fast. This rate difference is manifested by a two-exponential behavior of the chemiluminescence kinetics. The observed dependence of the chemiexcitation yield on the electrochemical characteristics of the activator has been rationalized in terms of the intermolecular CIEEL mechanism (Scheme 12), in which the free-energy balance for the electron back-transfer (BET) determines whether the singlet-excited activator, the species responsible for the light emission, is formed ... 

Steinfatt proposed an alternative mechanism for the formation of excited aminophth-alate, based on the concept of dioxirane-carbene mediated chemiexcitation, which is also attributed to other chemiluminescent systems ° °. After the attack of hydrogen peroxide on the diazaquinone 27 carbonyl carbon, a perhydrolysis step is postulated to result in the intramolecular dioxirane-carbene system (32) in the excited state ° ° . This species presumably rearranges to 3-aminophthalate dianion while still in the singlet-excited state (Scheme 23). Although this is a very interesting mechanistic proposal, it is based on experimental evidence obtained with indirect phthaloyl peroxide chemiluminescence and no further evidence corroborates this proposal. 

In this part of the chapter, we will focus essentially on mechanistic aspects of the peroxyoxalate reaction. For the discussion of the most important advances in mechanistic aspects of this chemiluminescent system, covering mainly literature reports published in the last two decades, we will divide the sequence operationally into three main parts (i) the kinetics of chemical reactions that take place before chemiexcitation, which ultimately produce the high-energy intermediate (HEI) (ii) the efforts to elucidate the structure of the proposed HEIs, either attempting to trap and synthesize them, or by indirect spectroscopic studies and lastly, (iii) the mechanism involved in chemiexcitation, whereby the interaction of the HEI with the activator leads to the formation of the electronically excited state of the latter, followed by fluorescence emission and decay to the ground state. 

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