Photosensitization, enantioselective reactions

Enamines, reaction with quinones, 20, 3 Enantioselective aldol reactions, 67, 1 allylation and crotylation, 73, 1 Ene reaction, in photosensitized oxygenation, 20, 2 Enolates ... 

Since the first report on the asymmetric photosensitization (7.7% ee) of the isomerization of tra s-1,2-diphenylcyclopropane by Hammond and Cole, attention has been focused on enantiodifferentiating photosensitized isomerization reactions. The observed asymmetric induction was limited, until Inoue et al. achieved remarkable enantiomeric excesses of up to 64% ee in the photoisomerization of Z-cyclooctene to the optically active -cyclooctene, sensitized by chiral benzenepolycarboxylates at -89°C. Valuable insights into the mechanism (e.g., the entropy influence) were gained from the temperature and pressure dependence of the observed enantioselectivities. ... 

A possible way to induce selectivity in the photodecarboxylation process could be through photosensitized reactions in the soHd state. In fact, when a two-component molecular crystal of phenanthridine and 3-indoleacetic acid is irradiated at low temperature (-70°C), 3-methyHndole is formed in high yield as the sole product by contrast, when the same reaction is carried out in acetonitrile solution, four products are obtained.Furthermore, irradiation of two-component molecular crystals of arylalkyl carboxylic acids with stoichiometric amounts of electron acceptor causes decarboxylative condensation between the two components with important selectivities. " Thus, irradiation of (S)-naproxen in a chiral crystal with 1,2,4,5-tetracyanobenzene produces a decarboxylated condensation product retaining the initial chirality." Photolysis of an enantiomorphous bimolecular crystal of acridine with the R or S enantiomer of 2-phenylpropionic acid causes stereoselective condensation to give three optically active products. An absolute asymmetric synthesis has also been achieved by the enantioselective decarboxylative condensation of a chiral molecular crystal formed from achiral diphenylacetic acid and acridine (Scheme 9). ... 

High PSS E/Z ratios, (E/Z)pss, of up to 0.8 are reported in the photosensitizations of IZ mediated by non-methylated CD derivatives 2a, 3a-f and 4a in 1 1 methanol-water mixture. Since much lower (E/Z)pss values are obtained upon conventional photosensitization of IZ in organic solvents, these high ratios are characteristic of supramolecular photosensitization and hence may be attributed to the close contact, and efficient energy transfer to, of both isomers in the confined medium. The ee s of IE obtained upon photoisomerization of IZ in the presence of a and y-CD benzoates, 2a and 4a, whose cavity sizes are not matched to that of IZ, are much lower than that obtained with jS-CD analogue 3a. The enantioselectivity of the reaction is also very sensitive to the structure of... 

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