Diarylethene dimers

Cycloadditions have been carried out to 37/-indoles (222, 223) (125,126), N-arylmaleimides (224) (127,128), l,2), -azaphospholes (225) (129), 5(47/)-oxazo-lones (226) (130), and 4,5-dihydrooxazoles (230) (131). The primary cycloadducts from the reaction of oxazolones (e.g., 226 with diaryl nitrile imines), derived from tetrazoles in refluxing anisole, do not survive. They appear to lose carbon dioxide and undergo a dimerization-fragmentation sequence to give the triazole 228 and the diarylethene 229 as the isolated products (130). In cases where the two aryl substituents on the oxazole are not the same, then, due to tautomerism, isomeric mixtures of products are obtained. 

Benzylic electrophiles bearing electron-withdrawing groups at the arene do not always yield the expected products of nucleophilic substitution on treatment with a nucleophile. One important side reaction is the dimerization of these compounds to yield 1,2-diarylethenes (stilbenes). This dimerization does not require such highly activated systems as the example sketched in Scheme 4.28, but can even occur with, for example, 2- or 4-nitrobenzyl chloride [120, 121]. The latter compounds are converted into the corresponding stilbenes by treatment with KOH in ethanol [120]. Di-arylmethyl halides behave similarly and can yield tetraarylethenes on treatment with a base. These reactions presumably proceed via the mechanism sketched in Scheme 4.27, in which the amphiphilic character of the nitro group plays a decisive role (metalated nitroalkanes or 4-nitrobenzyl derivatives can act as nucleophiles and as electrophiles). 

The dimerization of several 1,1-diarylethenes has been studied by pulse radiolysis.The reaction of the 1,1-diphenylethene radical cation with the monomer occurred with a rate constant of 1.2 X 10 M s (see Table 7) in cyclohexane and generated a transient with at 435 nm that was assigned to a 1,4-acyclic radical cation. Similarly, the addition of the 1,1-dianisylethene... 

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