Organic photochemistry, mechanistic approach

A Theoretical Approach to Solid-State Organic Photochemistry Mechanistic and Exploratory Organic Photochemistry... 

Organic photochemistry has typically been approached from a physical/mechanistic perspective, rather than a synthetic one. This may result from a certain reluctance on the part of synthetic chemists to employ reactions which often produce many products. Nonetheless, careful design of substrates can lead to high levels of chemoselectivity. In fact, there have been many recent examples of the successful application of photochemical reactions to the synthesis of complex targets1. In many cases, these processes provide access to unique modes of reactivity, or offer unrivaled increases in molecular complexity2. 

Mechanistic Organic Photochemistry, A New Approach to (Zimmerman) Mercury Photosensitization, Isotopic Effects and the Mechanism of... 

A final comment is required about our mechanistic approach to organic photochemistry. It is clear that this is bifurcated. On one hand one uses MO calculations to obtain predictions and excited state descriptions. On the other hand, he writes... 

Zimmerman HE, Schuster DI (1962) A new approach to mechanistic organic photochemistry. IV. Photochemical rearrangements of 4,4-diphenylcyclohexadienone. J Am Chem Soc 84 4527 540... 

---