Intramolecular radical-induced proton transfer

So far, two different mechanisms of single strand break formation based on adiabatically stable anions have been proposed. The first mechanism, suggested by the Leszczynski group, assumes the formation of stable anions of 3 - and 5 -phosphates of thymidine and cytidine in which the cleavage of the C-O bond take place via the SN2-type process. The second reaction sequence, proposed by us, starts from the electron induced BFPT process followed by the second electron attachment to the pyrimidine nucleobase radical, intramolecular proton transfer, and the C-O bond dissociation. In both mechanisms the bottleneck step is associated with very low kinetic barrier which enables the SSB formation to be completed in a time period much shorter than that required for the assay of damage. 

Products of addition to styrene double bonds can arise as a result of light induced electron transfer reactions. Lewis has studied the intramolecular reaction of l-phenyl-w-amino alkenes (422) 289,290 products arise from electron transfer from the amine nitrogen to the excited state of the styryl group followed by intramolecular proton transfer in the radical ion pair produced. The resultant biradical then couples to yield the isolated products (423) and (424). Sensitisation of the intermolecular analogue of this reaction by 1,4-dicyanobenzene has been reported and is proposed to occur by electron transfer from the styrene to the excited state of the sensitiser followed by attack of an amine on the styrene radical cation. This ultimately leads to the product of anti-Markovnikov addition of the amine across the double bond of the styrene. This is similar to the sequence long since established by... 

The excited state properties of hydroxyaromatic compounds (phenols, naphthols, etc) are of interest to a wide audience in chemistry, including those interested in the environmental decomposition of phenols, chemical physicists interested in the very fast dynamics of excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) and excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT), physical chemists interested in photoionization and the photochemical pathways for phenoxyl radical formation, and organic photochemists interested in the mechanisms of phenol and hydroxyarene photochemistry. Due to space limitations, this review is restricted to molecular photochemistry of hydroxyaromatic compounds reported during the last three decades that are of primary interest to organic photochemists. It also includes a brief section on the phenomenon of enhanced acidity of phenols and other hydroxyaromatics because this is central to hydroxyarene photochemistry and forms the basis of much of the mechanistic photochemistry to be discussed later on. Several reviews that offer related coverage to this work have also appeared recently. This review does not cover aspects of electron photoejection from phenols or phenolate ions (and related compounds such as tyrosine) or phenol OH homolysis induced photochemically, as shown in Eq. (39.1), as these are adequately covered elsewhere ... 

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