Intramolecular addition reactions exciplex fluorescence

These intramolecular addition reactions are remarkable in that they have no intermolecular counterpart. In fact, A/,W-dialky-lamides and tetraalkyl ureas fail to quench styrene fluorescence. However, photoaddition of some 1,1-diarylethylenes and tetra-methylurea has been reported. The intramolecular reactions are proposed to occur via weakly bound nonfluorescent singlet exciplex intermediates, which undergo a-C-H transfer to yield the biradical precursors of the observed products. A triplet mechanism was excluded based on the failure of sensitization by xanthone or quenching by 1,3-pentadiene. The involvement of charge transfer is consistent with the requirement of polar solvents for these reactions. The quantum yields for adduct formation from 19 and 25 are much higher than those of their p-methoxy derivatives, in which the styrene is a much weaker electron acceptor. ... 

Data on photophysics and photochemistry of intramolecular stilbene-amine exciplexes and reactions have been reported [34]. The obtained data indicated that the photophysical and photochemical behavior of a series of traws-(aminoalkyl) stilbenes in which a primary, secondary, or tertiary amine is appended to the stUbene ortho position with a Me, Et, or Pr linker. The tertiary (aminoalkyl) stilbenes formed fluorescent exciplexes and underwent trans cis isomerization but failed to undergo intramolecular N—H addition. The secondary (aminoalkyl)stilbenes did not form fluorescent exciplexes but underwent the addition to the stilbene double bond. Intramolecular reactions were highly selective, providing an efficient method for the synthesis oftetrahydrobenzazepines. Direct irradiation of the primary (aminoalkyl) stilbenes resulted only in trans-cis isomerization, while irradiation in the presence of the electron acceptor p-dicyanobenzene resulted in regioselective intramolecular N—H addition to the stilbene double bond. 

The addition reactions of ring-substituted stilbenes with EtjN are nonregioselective. (Aminoalkyl) stilbenes in which a trialkylamine is appended to the stilbene ortho position with a mono-, di-, or trimethylene linker form fluorescent intramolecular exciplexes but fail to undergo intramolecular addition, even in polar solvents. It is possible that the exciplex or radical ion pair geometry is not suitable for a least-motion proton transfer process. 

Steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy has also been used to study solvation processes in supercritical fluids. For example, Okada et al. (29) and Kajimoto and co-workers (30) studied intramolecular excited-state complexation (exciplex) and charge-transfer formation, respectively, in supercritical CHF3. In the latter studies, the observed spectral shift was more than expected based on the McRae theory (56,57), this was attributed to cluster formation. In other studies, Brennecke and Eckert (5,31,44,45) examined the fluorescence of pyrene in supercritical CO2, C2HSteady-state emission spectra were used to show density augmentation near the critical point. Additional studies investigated the formation of the pyrene excimer (i.e., the reaction of excited- and ground-state pyrene monomers to form the excited-state dimer). These authors concluded that the observance of the pyrene excimer in the supercritical fluid medium was a consequence of increased solute-solute interactions. 

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