1,2-Dioxetanes excited states

Dloxetanes. Simple dioxetanes (3) decompose thermally near or below room temperature to generate excited states of carbonyl products... 

Yields of excited states from 1,2-dioxetane decomposition have been determined by two methods. Using a photochemical method (17,18) excited acetone from TMD is trapped with /n j -l,2-dicyanoethylene (DCE). Triplet acetone gives i7j -l,2-dicyanoethylene with DCE, whereas singlet acetone gives 2,2-dimethyl-3,4-dicyanooxetane. By measuring the yields of these two products the yields of the two acetone excited states could be determined. The yields of triplet ketone (6) from dioxetanes are determined with a similar technique. 

Subsequent studies (63,64) suggested that the nature of the chemical activation process was a one-electron oxidation of the fluorescer by (27) followed by decomposition of the dioxetanedione radical anion to a carbon dioxide radical anion. Back electron transfer to the radical cation of the fluorescer produced the excited state which emitted the luminescence characteristic of the fluorescent state of the emitter. The chemical activation mechanism was patterned after the CIEEL mechanism proposed for dioxetanones and dioxetanes discussed earher (65). Additional support for the CIEEL mechanism, was furnished by demonstration (66) that a linear correlation existed between the singlet excitation energy of the fluorescer and the chemiluminescence intensity which had been shown earher with dimethyl dioxetanone (67). 

As to the nature of the electronically excited state, the investigation of the thermolysis of tetramethyl-1.2-dioxetane revealed a high yield (about 50%) of excited triplet acetone 34> ... 

The brilliant emissions resulting from the oxidation of certain oxalic acid derivatives, especially in the presence of a variety of fluorophores, are the bases of the most active area of current interest in CL. This group of chemiluminescent reactions has been classified as peroxyoxalate chemistry because it derives from the excited states formed by the decomposition of cyclic peroxides of oxalic acid derivatives called dioxetanes, dioxetanones, and dioxetanediones. 

The most commonplace substrates in energy-transfer analytical CL methods are aryl oxalates such as to(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate (TCPO) and z s(2,4-dinitrophenyl) oxalate (DNPO), which are oxidized with hydrogen peroxide [7, 8], In this process, which is known as the peroxyoxalate-CL (PO-CL) reaction, the fluorophore analyte is a native or derivatized fluorescent organic substance such as a polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon, dansylamino acid, carboxylic acid, phenothiazine, or catecholamines, for example. The mechanism of the reaction between aryl oxalates and hydrogen peroxide is believed to generate dioxetane-l,2-dione, which may itself decompose to yield an excited-state species. Its interaction with a suitable fluorophore results in energy transfer to the fluorophore, and the subsequent emission can be exploited to develop analytical CL-based determinations. 

Peroxyoxalate-based CL reactions are related to the hydrogen peroxide oxidation of an aryl oxalate ester, producing a high-energy intermediate. This intermediate (l,2-dioxetane-3,4-dione) forms, in the presence of a fluorophore, a charge transfer complex that dissociates to yield an excited-state fluorophore, which then emits. This type of CL reaction can be used to determine hydrogen peroxide or fluorophores including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dansyl- or fluores-camine-labeled analytes, or, indirectly, nonfluorescers that are easily oxidized (e.g., sulfite, nitrite) and quench the emission. The most widely used oxalate... 

The contemporary trends of dioxetane chemistry include a number of fundamental and applied aspects. The fundamental aspects encompass the stereoselective synthesis and the transformations of novel chiral dioxetanes, as well as the mechanistic studies on the thermal, electron-transfer-induced and catalytic dioxetane decomposition. The emphasis lies on the elucidation of the excited-state generation in these chemiluminescent processes. 

A wealth of experimental data on the thermal dioxetane decomposition and the excited-state generation in the thermolysis process has been comprehensively surveyed in previous reviews". During the last decade, computational elucidation of the thermal cleavage received major attention and in the present subsection we consider the relevant smd-ies. Computations on the dioxetane thermolysis were conducted by both ab initio and semiempiricaP methods at different levels of sophistication. 

In summary, although the computed structural details of the reaction profile depend on the method used for calculations, the general salient mechanistic conclusion is that the dioxetane thermolysis starts with the 0—0 bond rupture to generate the 0C(H2)—C(H2)0 triplet diradical, which is followed by C—C bond cleavage to afford the final ketone products one of them is formed preferentially in its triplet excited state. Since even simple 1,2-dioxetanes still present a computational challenge to resolve the controversial thermolysis mechanism, the theoretical elucidation of complex dioxetanes constitutes to date a formidable task. 

On the basis of mechanistic studies, mainly on these isolable cychc four-membered peroxides (1 and 2), two main efficient chemiexcitation mechanisms can be defined in organic peroxide decomposition (i) the unimolecular decomposition or rearrangement of high-energy compounds leading to the formation of excited-state products, exemplified here in the case of the thermal decomposition of 1,2-dioxetane (equation i)". 5,i9. 

In this part of the chapter, we will briefly outline the main types of CL reactions which can be functionally classified by the nature of the excitation process that leads to the formation of the electronically excited state of the light-emitting species. Direct chemiluminescence is the term employed for a reaction in which the excited product is formed directly from the unimolecular reaction of a high-energy intermediate that has been formed in prior reaction steps. The simplest example of this type of CL is the unimolecular decomposition of 1,2-dioxetanes, which are isolated HEI. Thermal decomposition of 1,2-dioxetanes leads mainly to the formation of triplet-excited carbonyl compounds. Although singlet-excited carbonyl compounds are produced in much lower yields, their fluorescence emission constitutes the direct chemiluminescence emission observed in these transformations under normal conditions in aerated solutions ... 

The unimolecular decomposition of 1,2-dioxetanes and 1,2-dioxetanones (a-peroxylac-tones) is the simplest and most exhaustively studied example of a thermal reaction that leads to the formation, in this case in a single elementary step, of the electronically excited state of one of the product molecules. The mechanism of this transformation was studied intensively in the 1970s and early 1980s and several hundreds of 1,2-dioxetane derivatives and some 1,2-dioxetanones were synthesized and their activation parameters and CL quantum yields determined. Thermal decomposition of these cyclic peroxides leads mainly to the formation of triplet-excited carbonyl products in up to 30% yields. However, formation of singlet excited products occurs in significantly lower yields (below... 

This biradical-like concerted mechanism, in which the kinetic features reflect the biradical character and the formation of excited-state products can best be rationalized by the concerted namre of the complex reaction coordinate, was proposed to optimally reconcile the experimentally determined activation and excitation parameters of most 1,2-dioxetanes studied and has been called the merged mechanism . Specifically, bofh fhermal sfabil-ity and singlel and friplef quanfum yields in fhe series of mefhyl-subsliluled 1,2-dioxelanes, including fhe parenf 1,2-dioxefane" , could be readily rationalized on the basis of the merged mechanism and qualitative quanmm mechanics considerations . 

The n-7T state selectivity observed in the decomposition of 1,2-dioxetanes, even in cases in which the it-it excited state of the carbonyl product possesses lower... 

Nevertheless, there are two highly efficient CL systems which are believed to involve the CIEEL mechanism in the chemiexcitation step, i.e. the peroxyoxalate reaction and the electron transfer initiated decomposition of properly substituted 1,2-dioxetanes (Table 1)17,26 We have recently confirmed the high quantum yields of the peroxyoxalate system and obtained experimental evidence for the validity of the CIEEL hypothesis as the excitation mechanism in this reaction. The catalyzed decomposition of protected phenoxyl-substituted 1,2-dioxetanes is believed to be initiated by an intramolecular electron transfer, analogously to the intermolecular CIEEL mechanism. Therefore, these two highly efficient systems demonstrate the feasibility of efficient excited-state formation by subsequent electron transfer, chemical transformation (cleavage) and back-electron transfer steps, as proposed in the CIEEL hypothesis. 

Like other peroxides, also dioxetanes are sensitive to the presence of metal ions and their complexes, which catalyze the decomposition of the dioxetane molecule. In most cases, this decomposition is dark, i.e. no chemiluminesce is generated in such a catalytic cleavage42. An informative exception, for instance, constitutes the chemiluminescent decomposition of the dioxetane 19 in Scheme 13, initiated by the ruthenium complex Ru(bipy)3Cl243. It has been shown that this chemiexcitation derives from the valence change of the ruthenium ion in the process Ru3+ I e — Ru2+, for which the efficiency of the excited-state generation may be as much as 40%44. Hence, when the radical anion of the carbonyl cleavage fragment from the dioxetane and the Ru3+ ion are formed in... 

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