Enols from photoenolization

The efficiency of reduction of benzophenone derivatives is greatly diminished when an ortho alkyl substituent is present because a new photoreaction, intramolecular hydrogen-atom abstraction, then becomes the dominant process. The abstraction takes place from the benzylic position on the adjacent alkyl chain, giving an unstable enol that can revert to the original benzophenone without photoreduction. This process is known as photoenolization Photoenolization can be detected, even though no net transformation of the reactant occurs, by photolysis in deuterated hydroxylic solvents. The proton of the enolic hydroxyl is rapidly exchanged with solvent, so deuterium is introduced at the benzylic position. Deuterium is also introduced if the enol is protonated at the benzylic carbon by solvent ... 

Laser flash photolysis of 46 showed results similar to those obtained for 45. The lifetimes and yields of Z and E photoenols from 46 are comparable to those obtained for 56. Similarly, laser flash photolysis of 47 reveals that the major reactivity pattern of 47 is intramolecular H-atom abstraction to form Z-58 and E-58 even though no products were observed that can be attributed to the formation of photoenol 58. Laser flash photolysis of 47 in methanol showed formation of biradical 57 ( max 330 nm, r = 22ns), which was efficiently quenched with oxygen (Scheme 32). Biradical 57 intersystem crosses to form Z-58 and E-58, which have maximum absorption at 400 nm. Enols Z-58 to E-58 were formed in the approximate ratio of 1 4. Enol Z-58 had a lifetime of 6.5)0,s in methanol, but its lifetime in dichloro-methane was only 110 ns. The measured lifetime of E-58 in methanol was 162)0,s, while it was 44 ms in 2-propanol. Thus, E-58 is considerably shorter-lived than E-56. Furthermore, E-58 is also shorter-lived than the analogous E-59 (Scheme 33), which cannot decay by intramolecular lactonization and has a lifetime of 3.6 ms in methanol. Thus, we proposed that E-58 undergoes solvent-assisted reketonization that is facilitated by the intramolecular H-atom bonding, as shown in Scheme 34. 

For some time the synthetic potential of this reaction as a source of Diels-Alder adducts underwent considerable study. One outcome of these studies was the realization that of the four possible o-xylylenol isomers, only ones with the enolic OH group pointed out (the F-photoenol ) reacted with dienophiles [23]. Mechanistic studies picked up in the 1970s, after Matsuura and Kitaura reported that, in the absence of dienophiles, benzocyclobutenols are formed from 2,6-dialkylphenyl ketones but not from simple o-alkylphenyl ketones [24]. Previously the absence of cyclobutenol products had been quite puzzling and led to suggestions that they were formed from the initial biradical but underwent rapid electrocyclic opening to the o-xylylenols. 

To be very enantioselective, this reaction has to meet several important requirements. First, photoenols have to be produced as either pure Z or E stereoisomers to allow enantioselective photodeconjugation. Even so, protonation of the Z or stereoisomers from the same, rear side, for example, would produce opposite enantiomers and a low enantiomeric excess (ee) would result (Scheme 3). Fortunately, photoenolization of aliphatic enones is only possible from the Z isomer excited in its singlet state, and the excited molecule has to adopt an s-cis conformation to place the excited carbonyl and the y-H close enough to allow y-H abstraction. Consequently, the enol is formed in a unique configuration. All these observations have led several groups to propose a concerted process involving a 1,5 antarafacial sigmatropic shift for the formation of photodienols [16]. 

According to the principle of isoinversion and generalization of the model of diastereoselection developed for the Patemo-Buchi reaction [47], the enantioselective protonation of photoenols can be rationalized, if we assume a preequilibrium between the photoenol [48] and a supramolecule formed by hydrogen bonding between the aminogroup from one or other enantio-face and the enol intermediate (Scheme 5). 

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