Diradicals acyclic

Intramolecular hydrogen-atom abstraction is also an important process for acyclic a,/ -unsaturated ketones. The intermediate diradical then cyclizes to give the enol of a cyclobutyl ketone. Among the by-products of such photolyses are cyclobutanols resulting from alternative modes of cyclization of the diradical intermediate ... 

In a definitive study of butadiene s reaction with l,l-dichloro-2,2-difluoio-ethylene, Bartlett concluded that [2+4] adducts of acyclic dienes with fluorinated ethylenes are formed through a mixture of concerted and nonconcerted, diradical pathways [67] The degree of observed [2+4] cycloaddition of fluorinated ethylenes IS related to the relative amounts of transoid and cisoid conformers of the diene, with very considerable (i.e., 30%) Diels-Alder adduct being observed in competition with [2+2] reaction, for example, in the reaction of 1,1 -dichloro-2,2-difluoro-ethylene with cyclopentadiene [9, 68]... 

In 1982 the present author discovered cyclic orbital interactions in acyclic conjugation, and showed that the orbital phase continuity controls acyclic systems as well as the cyclic systems [23]. The orbital phase theory has thus far expanded and is still expanding the scope of its applications. Among some typical examples are included relative stabilities of cross vs linear polyenes and conjugated diradicals in the singlet and triplet states, spin preference of diradicals, regioselectivities, conformational stabilities, acute coordination angle in metal complexes, and so on. 

Fig. 18 Typical conformations of acyclic localized 1,3-diradicals, including disrotatory conformers a and c, and conrotatory conformer b...

All the above-mentioned acyclic 1,3-diradicals are less stable than the a-bonded isomers. Therefore, in addition to using various substituents, other factors should be further considered in our design of persistent singlet 1,3-diradicals. In Sect. 5.2, ring structure is taken into account. Strain prevents the ring closure in the singlet state. Two linkers between the radical centers multiply the through-bond interactions. 

The substituents and heteroatoms can be used to tune the spin preference of the acyclic diradicals by changing the energy levels of electron-donating and -accepting orbitals and hence the donor-acceptor interaction. 

It should be noted that products like 443 and 447 are the normal products of photochemical reactions of acyclic 1,3,5-hexatrienes, as well as of divinyl aromatics, but are quite unusual for thermal transformations of such substrates. Presumably, the electrostatic repulsion between CF2 groups prevents the formation of conformation 450 which is necessary for the electrocyclic ring closure (i.e. 438 — 439 and 445 -> 446). Instead, it leads to conformation 451 which is favorable to generate the diradical and then the fused vinyl-cyclopropane intermediates 452 (equation 170). Note that the rearrangement 452 —> 453... 

A semiempirical AMI study of the inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction of 4-substituted 6-nitrobenzofurans with enol ethers and enamines favours a stepwise mechanism involving short-lived diradical intermediates. The inverse-electron-demand intermolecular Diels-Alder reactions of 3,6-bis(trifluoromethyl)-l,2,4,5-tetra-zine with acyclic and cyclic dienophiles followed by the elimination of N2 produce 4,5-dihydropyridazines, which cycloadd further to yield cage compounds. The preparation of jS-carbolines (90) via an intramolecular inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder... 

Orfanopoulos et al. studied the photochemical reaction of alkenes, aryalkenes, dienes dienones, and acyclic enones with [60]fullerene to obtain various substituted cyclobutylfullerenes [240,241,243,247], For example, the photocycloaddition of cis- and Irans-1 -(p-mcthoxyphenyl)-1 -propenc 68 to C6o gives only the trans [2 + 2] adducts (Scheme 27), thus the reaction is stereospecific for the most thermodynamically stable cycloadduct. A possible mechanism includes the formation of a common dipolar or biradical intermediate between 3C o and the arylalkene. Subsequent fast rotation of the aryl moiety around the former double bond leads exclusively to the trans-69 [2 + 2] adduct. Irradiation of this product, yielded 90% trans-68,10% cis-68 and cycloreversion products. Thus, a concerted mechanism can be excluded because the photocycloreversion is expected to give the trans-68 as the only product. These results can be explained by the formation of a common dipolar or diradical intermediate. Similarly, cycloreversion products from C6o and tetraalkoxyethylene... 

Fig. 8.12 The molecular orbitals of 1,5-pentanediyl and cyclopentane, relevant to the C-C cleavage of the cycloalkane that leads to the acyclic diradical. Calculated with the HF/STO-3G wavefunction and localized by the NBO method. The cyclopentane C-C bonding orbital, MO 10, relevant to this reaction, must be switched with MO 20, a pure C-H bonding MO with no relevance here, to move the C-C MO into the active space. Note that these molecules have 40 electrons...

This control, however, can be tested only in acyclic dienes, which lack of the conformational rigidity of cyclic substrates. Loss of the stereochemical information could be due to isomerization of the starting diene [18b,19c], to two-step processes [18], or to the reversible formation of an exciplex which, depending on the substrate structure, may have a zwitterionic and/or diradical character [19]. 

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