Fragmentation reactions radical anions

There are a number of non-electrochemical techniques that have proven invaluable in combination with electrochemical results in understanding the chemistry and the kinetics. Laser flash photolysis (LFP) is a well-established technique for the study of the transient spectroscopy and kinetics of reactive intermediates. The technique is valuable for the studying of the kinetics of the reactions of radical anions, particularly those that undergo rapid stepwise dissociative processes. The kinetics of fragmentation of radical anions can be determined using this method if (i) the radical anion of interest can be formed in a process initiated by a laser pulse, (ii) it has a characteristic absorption spectrum with a suitable extinction coefficient, and (iii) the rate of decay of the absorption of the radical anion falls within the kinetic window of the LFP technique typically this is in the order of 1 x 10" s to 1 X 10 s . 

One possibility to avoid the fragmentation of radical anions lies in the lowering of their antibonding n MO. For instance, the photostimulated reactions of polycyclic or heterocyclic halides, such as 1-chloronaphthalene, 2-chloroquinoline, 4-chlorobiphenyl and 9-bromophenanthrene with PhSe" ions give good yields of substitution products ArSePh (50-72%)306. In this case a stable k radical anion is formed. 

The fragmentation of radical anions and the reverse reaction, the addition of anions to radicals, are the critical steps of SRN1 reactions [110] which constitute perhaps the largest class of fragmentation reactions initiated by photoinduced electron transfer. These reactions are chain processes and photoinduced ET is involved only in the initiation step, which is usually poorly defined. The reactions may also be initiated by other means, not involving absorption of a photon. The SRN1 reactions and related redox-activation processes have been recently extensively reviewed [72a, 110,127] and will not be discussed here. 

Even though fragmentation of radical anions represents a key step in SrnI reactions (Scheme 76) and in aliphatic nucleophilic substitution reactions (Sn2) proceeding via single electron transfer (Scheme 77), such processes and their mechanistic implications will not be discussed in this section (several reviews are available [271-277]). 

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... 

To check the identity and purity of the products obtained in the above reactions it is not sufficient to analyze for the sulfur content since a mixture may incidentally have the same S content. Either X-ray diffraction on single crystals or Raman spectra of powder-like or crystalline samples will help to identify the anion(s) present in the product. However, the most convincing information comes from laser desorption Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectra in the negative ion mode (LD mass spectra). It has been demonstrated that pure samples of K2S3 and K2S5 show peaks originating from S radical anions which are of the same size as the dianions in the particular sample no fragment ions of this type were observed [28]. 

An important synthetic application of this reaction is in dehalogenation of dichloro- and dibromocyclopropanes. The dihalocyclopropanes are accessible via carbene addition reactions (see Section 10.2.3). Reductive dehalogenation can also be used to introduce deuterium at a specific site. The mechanism of the reaction involves electron transfer to form a radical anion, which then fragments with loss of a halide ion. The resulting radical is reduced to a carbanion by a second electron transfer and subsequently protonated. 

Chloroadamantanes (149) and (150) reacted with CH2COPh to afford the monosubstitution products (151) and (152) as intermediates, the intramolecular electron-transfer reaction of the radical anion intermediate being a slow process. Product (151) with chlorine in the 1-position reacted further to give (153), whereas (152) with chlorine in the 2-position is unreactive, showing that the 1-position is the more reactive. 1,2-Diiodoadamantane (154) reacted with CH2NO2 to give the monosubstitution products (155) and (156). This implies that the intramolecular electron-transfer reaction of the radical anion is a slow process. The fact that (155) was formed as major product and (156) was the minor product shows that, when (154) accepts an electron, fragmentation occurs faster at the 1-position than the 2-position. 

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). 

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). 

Triethylamine as the electron donor was also used by Mattay and co-workers in tandem fragmentation cyclization reactions of a-cyclopropylketones. The initial electron transfer on the ketone moiety is followed by the fast cyclopropyl-carbinyl-homoallyl rearrangement, yielding a distonic radical anion. With an appropriate unsaturated side chain within the molecule both annealated and spi-rocyclic ring systems are accessable in moderate yields (Scheme 41) [62]. 

The mechanism of the reaction presumably involves electron transfer to form a radical anion, which then fragments with loss of a halide ion. The resulting radical is reduced to a carbanion by a second electron transfer and subsequently protonated. 

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