Dimerization, alkenes photochemical

Photodimerization reactions of some other simple alkenes and dienes follow/39-30 36-182 Although not a dimerization reaction, photochemical ring closures to yield cyclobutane derivatives are analogous and are included in this section 31-35 ... 

Photochemical reaction of the ester 114 afforded the alkene 115 and three products derived from 115. A mechanism, involving dimerization of 114 leading to a dithietane intermediate 116, was proposed. Trapping of active sulfur species, generated from 116, with dienes was also described (75CB630). 

The activation of silylene complexes is induced both photochemically or by addition of a base, e.g. pyridine. A similar base-induced cleavage is known from the chemistry of carbene complexes however, in this case the carbenes so formed dimerize to give alkenes. Finally, a silylene cleavage can also be achieved thermally. Melting of the compounds 4-7 in high vacuum yields the dimeric complexes 48-51 with loss of HMPA. The dimers, on the other hand, can be transformed into polysilanes and iron carbonyl clusters above 120 °C. In all cases, the resulting polymers have been identified by spectroscopic methods. 

Ordinary aldehydes and ketones can add to alkenes, under the influence of UV light, to give oxetanes. Quinones also react to give spirocyclic oxetanes. This reaction, called the Patemo-BUchi reaction,is similar to the photochemical dimerization of alkenes discussed at 15-61.In general, the mechanism consists of the addition of an excited state of the carbonyl compound to the ground state of the alkene. Both singlet (5i) and n,n triplet states have been shown to add to... 

Intermolecular photocycloadditions of alkenes can be carried out by photosensitization with mercury or directly with short-wavelength light.179 Relatively little preparative use has been made of this reaction for simple alkenes. Dienes can be photosensitized using benzophenone, butane-2,3-dione, and acetophenone.180 The photodimerization of derivatives of cinnamic acid was among the earliest photochemical reactions to be studied.181 Good yields of dimers are obtained when irradiation is carried out in the crystalline state. In solution, cis-trans isomerization is the dominant reaction. 

The cycloaddition of an enone with electron-rich alkenes also proceeds with remarkable regioselectivity. The rationalization is that in the excited state, polarization of the enone double bond is opposite in direction as compared with the ground state [190], In other words, photochemical excitation induces contrapolarization. With this consideration the head-to-head dimerization generally observed is reasonable as it involves one molecule each in the ground and excited states. 

Although hole-catalyzed (cycloaddilions involving radical cation intermediates) and PET (photochemical electron transfer) mixed [2 -I- 2] cycloadditions have been reported from electron-rich alkenes, the only report of a cyclodimerization is that of (E)-4-(prop-l-enyl)anisole which gives stereoisomeric mixtures of the head-to-head dimers 1 and 2.12... 

The Ni(I) complex of tetramethylated cyclam, [Ni(TMC)]+, generated from the corresponding Ni(II) complex by electrochemical or photochemical methods, reacts with alkyl halides (RX) (133,140-143). It is a radical reaction, generating R transients and/or Ni-alkyls, which then decay to form alkanes, alkenes, and dimeric or cyclic organics. 

In a different, biological context the photochemical cydo-dimerization of carbonyl-conjugated alkenes is important as a major source of ultraviolet-induced damage to living cells. Thymine (2.77)... 

Four-coordinate platinum(II) alkene complexes will undergo isomerization under photochemical702 or thermal703 conditions. The photochemical pathway is proposed to occur via a bridged dimeric intermediate. 

The results described in this article establish that the stilbenes are among the most versatile of organic reactants in bimolecular photochemical reactions. Only triplet cyclo-alkenones can rival the ability of It to dimerize, form [2+2] adducts with both electron-rich and electron-poor alkenes, and form acyclic adducts with amines, heterocycles, and noncon-jugated dienes. All of the known bimolecular photochemical reactions of excited stilbenes involve It as the reactive excited state. The failure of - -c, and 3C to undergo bi-... 

Transfer of carbene 3a from 19 to a variety of alkenes and cycloalkenes has been achieved under catalysis by copper(I) chloride74,79 - 82. However, with the exception of cyclohexene69,70 (72% yield), only moderate yields could be obtained. In all cases, the cyclopropanation was stereospecific with respect to the double bond configuration of the alkene and gave the sterically less crowded cyclopropane diastereomer in excess. As in the photochemical cyclopropanation, the formal carbene dimer trans-1,2-bis(trimethylsilyl)ethene is often formed as the major by-product. Cyclopropanation of fraws-but-2-ene with 19 with copper(II) chloride as catalyst was found to be even less... 

As discussed in Section 22.5, the [2 + 2] cycloaddition is photochemically allowed. The yields are often only mediocre, but this reaction is still useful because there are few good methods to prepare four-membered rings. As illustrated in the following equations, the cycloaddition can be used to dimerize two identical alkenes or to cyclize different alkenes ... 

Alkenes can be dimerized photochemically in this way, but reaction between two different alkenes is more interesting. If one alkene is bonded to a conjugating group, it alone will absorb UV light and... 

This review article deals primarily with addition reactions of nucleophiles, electrophiles, and neutral radicals to photochemically generated radical ions of organic compounds and some organometallic compounds. Photocyclodimerizations of electron-rich alkenes, photo-Diels-Alder reactions between alkenes and alkadienes via dimer or heterodimer radical cations, and photocycloadditions via triplexes are also included. 

We have emphasized that the Diels-Alder reaction generally takes place rapidly and conveniently. In sharp contrast, the apparently similar dimerization of alkenes to cyclobutanes (15-63) gives very poor results in most cases, except when photochemically induced. Woodward and Hoffmann, and Fukui have shown that these contrasting results can be explained by the principle of conservation of orbital symmetry which predicts that certain reactions are allowed and others forbidden. The orbital-symmetry rules (also called the Woodward-Hoffmann rules) apply only to concerted reactions, for example, mechanism a, and are based on the principle that reactions take place in such a way as to maintain maximum bonding throughout the course of the reaction. There are several ways of applying the orbital-symmetry principle to cycloaddition reactions, three... 

Photoaddition of alkenes to the azathymine (227) affords the adducts (228) the structures of which were determined by -ray crystallography. Acetone-sensitized irradiation of the azauracil derivative (229) yields the cyclobutane (230). Irradiation of the uracil (231) in isotropic solvents is known to yield all four (2-1 2)-dimers in low yield especially at low concentrations. A study has shown that dimerization in smectic media affords a high yield (94X) of the trans-anti dimer (232). In frozen solutions the specificity is reversed and the CIS-anti dimer (233) is formed. The influence of a variety of media on this process was studied in detail. A theoretical treatment of the photochemical addition of alkenes to psoralens such as (234) has been published. ... 

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