Phenanthrenes, photochemical formation

The valence tautomerism 251 257 has been proposed to account for the formation of iV-methylthiobenzamide by irradiation (2537 A) in methyl cyanide solution. The valence tautomer 257, R = Me, = Ph, has been detected spectroscopically (p , 2060 cm —N=C=S) either during photolysis at 25° or by heating at 160°. Photochemical oxidative cyclization of 4,5-diaryl derivatives (251, R = R = Ar) analogous to the formation of phenanthrene from stilbene has been reported. Thus, irradiation of the 4,5-diphenyl derivative 251, R = R = Ph, yields the tetracyclic meso-ionic compound (258). ... 

PAHs photooxidized by the type II singlet oxygen mediated mechanism include acenaphthylene, whose oxidized products and yields are shown in Fig. 10.29B (Barbas et al., 1994), phenanthrene (Barbas et al., 1996), anthracene (Dabestini et al., 1995), and tetracene (Dabestini et al., 1996). An additional photochemical process, the formation of photodimers, is also observed for acenaphthylene, anthracene, and tetracene. 

The synthesis of 9-phenylphenanthrene (Expt 6.14) illustrates the formation of the phenanthrene system by the cyclisation of a 1,2-diphenylethylene (stilbene). The process involves an allowed photochemical cyclisation which gives initially a dihydrophenanthrene. This is readily dehydrogenated in situ by molecular oxygen in the presence of iodine. 

Previously, Ohashi and his co-workers reported the photosubstitution of 1,2,4,5-tetracyanobenzene (TCNB) with toluene via the excitation of the charge-transfer complex between TCNB and toluene [409], The formation of substitution product is explained by the proton transfer from the radical cation of toluene to the radical anion of TCNB followed by the radical coupling and the dehydrocyanation. This type of photosubstitution has been well investigated and a variety of examples are reported. Arnold reported the photoreaction of p-dicyanobenzene (p-DCB) with 2,3-dimethyl-2-butene in the presence of phenanthrene in acetonitrile to give l-(4-cyanophenyl)-2,3-dimethyl-2-butene and 3-(4-cyanophenyl)-2,3-dimethyl-l-butene [410,411], The addition of methanol into this reaction system affords a methanol-incorporated product. This photoreaction was named the photo-NO-CAS reaction (photochemical nucleophile-olefin combination, aromatic substitution) by Arnold. However, a large number of nucleophile-incorporated photoreactions have been reported as three-component addition reactions via photoinduced electron transfer [19,40,113,114,201,410-425], Some examples are shown in Scheme 120. 

Only a few additional examples of intermolecular photochemical vinylations of (hetero)aromatic compounds have been forthcoming. Coupling products are formed in the irradiation of dichloro- and dibromo-A-methylmaleimide in the presence of 1,3-dimethyluracils341 and of 3-bromocoumarin in the presence of naphthalene, phenanthrene, 1-methylpyrrole and other aromatic compounds342. The former reaction is accompanied by cyclobutane adduct formation, which is the mode of reaction of A-methylmaleimide itself. The mechanism of these vinylation reactions is not clear, but most probably an exci-plex (cf equation 20a) or a charge-transfer complex (cf equation 20b) is involved. 

Photochemical reactions of substituted phenylethylenes, frans-stilbene and 1,1-diphenylethylene, on silica gel, has been reported by Sigman et al. [40]. Irradiation of fraus-slilbcnc adsorbed on silica gel produced two dimers, along with ds-stilbene, phenanthrene, and a small amount of ben-zaldehyde which arose from a type II oxidation mechanism (Scheme 9). The formation of photodimers was claimed to be promoted by inhomogeneous surface loading and slow diffusion of fraus-slilbcnc on silica [40]. 

SET Induced Reactions - Further studies on ring opening reactions of 1,2-diarylcyclopropanes have focused on compounds (83) bearing an acetyl functional group.All of the cyclopropane derivatives studied show efficient cis.trans isomerism with reasonable quantum efficiency. The isomerism reaction involves an acetophenone-like triplet state with lifetimes shorter than 1 ns. The formation of ring opened products also takes place but inefficiently to give a mixture of the two alkenes (84) and (85). A study of the electron-transfer-induced photochemical reactivity of the cyclopropane (86) has been reported in the co-sensitisation system (biphenyl/phenanthrene/DCA). ... 

Since the first photochemical synthesis of phenanthrene from (E)stilbene was realized [80] photochemical methods became a convenient way of aryl-aryl bond formation (Scheme 47). 

The Fixation of Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen.—As reduced carbon compounds are convenient fuels, the possibility of achieving the reductive fixation of COa in vitro is appealing, if remote. There are very few data on photochemical reactions involving carbon dioxide, for it has no low-lying excited states and has not historically been of much interest to the photochemist. However, what appears to be the first example of photofixation of COa in a non-biological system has been briefly reported.18 Photoirradiation (with a high-pressure mercury lamp) of phenanthrene in the presence of an amine and C02 in a polar solvent (MeaSO or HCONMea) yielded 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene-9-carboxylic acid, in unspecified quantum yield. The mechanism appears to involve formation of COaT by electron transfer from the photoexcited amine, followed by attack of COaT on position 9 of phenanthrene. Similar reductive carboxylation of anthracene, pyrene, naphthalene, and biphenyl was observed. 

Methanol addition results on irradiation of 2,3-dimethylbut-2-ene in a mixture of 1,4-dicyanobenzene and phenanthrene in the presence of acrylonitrile or methyl acrylate. Inoue and co-workers have studied the enantio-differentiating addition of alcohols to the 1,1-diphenylethene derivatives (52). The reactions are sensitized by the naphthalenecarboxylates (53) and (54), where the R groups are saccharide moieties. The ee of the products (55) is influenced by steric, electronic and solvent effects. Efficient addition of water to 3-hydroxystilbene can be brought about on irradiation in acetonitrile-water mixtures.Pincock has highlighted the importance of the discovery in 1973 of the formation of the radical cation of 1,1-diphenylethene. Grainger and Patel have described a new photochemical approach to cuparene (56). The reaction involves the electron-transfer induced cyclization of the styrene... 

Electrocyclization - helicenes. Brief cover reviews of the synthesis of helicenes were published.In the formation of helicenes and substituted phenanthrenes via the photochemical electrocyclization of diaryl-ethenes in the presence of iodine as an oxidant, the addition of THF... 

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