Fragmentation reactions acceptor radical anions

Photoinduced single-electron transfer followed by fragmentation of the radical cation is an efficient method for generating carbon-centered radicals under exceptionally mild conditions. The fate of the thus formed radicals depends primarily on their interaction with the acceptor radical anions. Typically observed reactions are either back-electron transfer or radical coupling, but from the synthetic point of view, another most intriguing possibility is the trapping of the radical with suitable substrates such as olefins (Scheme 16). 

In summary, the electron transfer reactions of amines offer an interesting variety of pathways, involving free radical or ionic intermediates and leading to two-electron oxidation as well as coupling and fragmentation reactions. In many systems, however, the most important reaction involves electron return from the acceptor radical anion, i.e. quenching of an excited state without net chemical change. 

Nonchain reactions initiated by elechon ttansfer to the aromatic and fragmentation of the radical anion have been reported for good acceptors, e.g., for some polyfluorinated... 

The attachment of an electron to an organic acceptor generates an umpolung anion radical that undergoes a variety of rapid unimolecular decompositions such as fragmentation, cyclization, rearrangement, etc., as well as bimolecular reactions with acids, electrophiles, electron acceptors, radicals, etc., as demonstrated by the following examples.135"137... 

An useful alternative to the already known retropinacol reactions is presented by Liu and co-workers [7], This works demonstrates that pinacols bearing (dimethylamino)phenyl substiments can be subjected to fast oxidative fragmentation via photoinduced electron transfer with chloroform as the electron acceptor in yields up to 80%. The extremely fast dechlorination of the chloroform radical anion inhibits back-electron transfer and thus leads to effective fragmentation of the pinacol radical cation (Scheme 8). 

The Srn 1 reaction has been applied to heterocycles. Among five-membered ring compounds, halothiophenes have been the most studied they have been shown to be susceptible to both electron-stimulated and photostimulated reactions, and have been converted to the corresponding acetonitriles [150], acetones [151], and phenyl-sulfides [ 152] in low to medium yields. In the study with the benzenethiolate anion it has been shown that the yield is low because of fragmentation of the adduct radical anion it can be increased by adding an electron acceptor, e.g. benzonitrile which prevents decomposition. Further applications include the thermally activated SrnI reaction between 3-iodobenzothiophene and enolates [153] and the photo-stimulated reaction of 3-halo-2-aminobenzothiophenes [154]. 

As already indicated, carbonyl compounds such as ketones, aldehydes, enones, and quinones possess the property to act as effective electron acceptors in the excited state for generating radical anions in the presence of electron-donating partners such as alkenes, aromatics, ruthenium complexes, amines, and alcohols. We will not consider the reactivity of enones and quinones, but we will focus our attention on the behavior of the radical anions formed from ketones and aldehydes. Four different processes can occur from these radical anions including coupling of two radical anions and/or coupling of the radical anion with the radical cation formed from the donor, abstraction of hydrogen from the reaction media to produce alcohols, cyclization, in the case of ce-unsaturated radical anions, and fragmentation when a C -X bond (X=0, C) is present (Scheme 18). 

Heteroarenes have been photochemically functionalized by PET reactions forming new C—C bonds both in an inter- and intramolecular fashion via a similar mechanism [46]. The heteroarenes could serve both as electron donor (e.g. pyrroles or indoles) or electron acceptor (e.g. cyanopyridines or cyanopyrazines). Again, fragmentation of the radical cation, coupled with the radical anion and loss of the anion, led to overall ipso-substitution. In addition to the cyano group, halides could also function as leaving groups, such that in some cases an attack at an unsubstituted position took place [46],... 

II. Photoinduced electron transfer reactions and subsequent fragmentation In electron transfer reactions, the photoexcited molecule, termed the sensitizer for the convenience, can act as either electron donor or electron acceptor according to the nature of the sensitizer and coinitiator. Fragmentation yields radical anions and radical cations, which are often not directly acting as initiating... 

One important discrepancy should be noted between photochemical and chemical ion radical reactions. In the photochemical mode, an oxidized donor and a reduced acceptor remain in the same cage of a solvent and can interact instantly. In the chemical mode, these initial products of electron transfer can come apart and react separately in the bulk solvent. For example, one-electron oxidation of phenylbenzyl sulfide results in formation of the cation radical both in the photoinduced reaction with nitromethane and during treatment with ammoniumyl species. Sulfide cation radicals undergo fragmentation in the chemical process, but they form phenylbenzyl sulfoxide molecules in the photochemical reaction. The sulfoxide is formed at the expense of the oxygen atom donor. The latter comes from the nitromethane anion radical and is directly present in the solvent cage. As for the am-... 

If fcf > feBET- the overall transformation can occur rapidly despite unfavorable driving forces for the electron transfer itself. Only follow-up reactions with high kf can compete with back electron transfer. Different kinds of such unimolecular processes can drive the equilibria toward the final product. A representative example is the mesolytic cleavage of the C-Sn bond in the radical cation resulting from the oxidation of benzylstannane by photoexcited 9,10-dicyanoanthracene (DCA). This is followed by the addition of the benzyl radical and the tributyltin cation to the reduced acceptor DCA [59]. In the arene/nitrosonium system, [ArH, NO+] complexes can exist in solution in equilibrium with a low steady-state concentration of the ion-radical pair. However, the facile deprotonation or fragmentation of the arene cation radical in the case of bifunctional donors such as octamethyl(diphenyl)methane and bicumene can result in an effective (ET) transformation of the arene donor [28, 59]. Another pathway involves collapse of the contact ion pair [D+, A- ] by rapid formation of a bond between the cation radical and anion radical (which effectively competes with the back electron transfer), as illustrated by the examples in Chart 5 [59]. 

Photochemical dehydrofragmentation has also been observed by Whitten et al. [16, 17] in PET reactions of aminoalcohols. The reaction is restricted to the geminate pair and the complimentary roles of reduced acceptor and oxidized donor facilitate chemical reaction in competition with back ET. The rapid fragmentation is dependent on the acceptor anion-radical induced deprotonation of the donor cation radical in the contact ion-pair and is strongly dependent on the structure of A [16]. The chemical transformation converts the aminoalcohol into the free amine, aldehyde and reduced electron acceptor. The efficiency of the PET induced fragmentation is affected by the stereochemistry of the aminoalcohol as well as the solvent [18]. Both the thioindigo (TI) and dicyanoanthracene (DCA) sensitized reactions are more efficient in nonpolar solvents such as benzene and... 

---