1.2- Dioxetanes unimolecular decomposition

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... 

The availability of the compounds has allowed a comparison between them and the more studied dioxetans. Of particular interest is the likelihood that the dioxetanones in addition to forming excited carbonyl products on unimolecular decomposition, they would react intramolecularly with low ionisation potential fluorescers in a reaction related to the intermolecular case of the luciferins. Examples of both modes of reaction are discussed below. 

Two extreme mechanisms have been proposed for the unimolecular dioxetane decomposition the concerted mechanism , whereby cleavage of the peroxide and the ring C—C bond occurs simultaneously, and the biradical mechanism whereby the initial cleavage of the 0—0 bond leads to the formation of a 1,4-dioxy biradical whose subsequent C—C bond cleavage leads to the formation of the two carbonyl fragments (Scheme 8). Although the biradical mechanism adequately explains the activation parameters obtained for most of the dioxetanes smdied, it appears not to be the appropriate mechanistic model for the rationalization of singlet and triplet quanmm yields. Therefore, an intermediate mechanism has been proposed, whereby the C—C and 0—0 bonds cleave in a concerted, but not simultaneous, manner (Scheme 8) . 

The results obtained by Murphy and Adam1111 were independently confirmed by another research group, which determined a bimolecular rate constant for the interaction of CHD with the dioxetane 10 of k2 = (5.5 0.2) 10-4 M l s l at 70°C, whereas a rate constant for the unimolecular dioxetane decomposition at this temperature of k = (5.5 0.2) 10 4 s 1 has been obtained. Therefore, in neat CHD (10.6 M), half of the dioxetane decomposes by the induced pathway, leading to the formation of 11, and the amounts of the diol 11 obtained should therefore be due only to diene-induced decomposition of the dioxetane and not to 1,4-dioxy biradical trapping111. Additionally, it was shown in this... 

While the unimolecular chemiluminescence of dioxetanones appears to fall easily within the framework of conventional dioxetane chemiluminescence, the chemiluminescence of dioxetanones in the presence of certain fluorescers falls resoundingly outside that framework. Adam et al. (1974) noted that the addition of rubrene to solutions of dimethyldioxetanone gave a yield of light twenty times that obtained when an equivalent concentration of 9,10-diphenylanthracene was added. Importantly, the apparent dissimilarity between rubrene and diphenylanthracene is inexplicable by any conventional mechanism of dioxetane decomposition. Also, significantly, Adam et al. (1974) observed an increase in the first-order decay constant of the dioxetanone with the addition of rubrene, an observation for which they did not offer an explanation. Sawaki and Ogata (1977) also observed an unusual dependence of the chemiluminescence yield on the identity of added fluorescer in the base-catalyzed decomposition of or-hydroperoxyesters, for which a dioxetanone intermediate was proposed (25). 

The kinetics of the thermal decomposition of 1,2-dioxetanes and a-peroxylactones are first order and are usually unimolecular. A variety of experimental methods can be used to monitor the rates. These include direct chemiluminescence of the excited carbonyl product,energy-transfer chemiluminescence of the chemienergized excited carbonyl product to an efficient fluorescer, dioxetane consumption or carbonyl product formation by nmr spectroscopy iodometry of the cyclic... 

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