Photochemical addition, radical intermediate

In related work, the reactions of hydrogen peroxide with iron(II) complexes, including Feu(edta), were examined.3 Some experiments were carried out with added 5.5"-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) as a trapping reagent fa so-called spin trap) for HO. These experiments were done to learn whether HO was truly as free as it is when generated photochemically. The hydroxyl radical adduct was indeed detected. but for some (not all) iron complexes evidence was obtained for an additional oxidizing intermediate, presumably an oxo-iron complex. 

In addition to the CIEEL mechanism, peroxides and endoperoxides are key intermediates in a number of chemical and biological processes. There are a growing number of examples where ET to the 0-0 bond in these systems is accepted as an important step in their activity. For example, it is now generally agreed that the first step in the bioactivity of the recently discovered potent antimalarial, artemisinin, involves an ET from Fe-heme to the 0-0 bond, leading to fragmentation and a number of psytotoxic radical intermediates. " In contrast to the enormous amount of literature on the thermal and photochemical reactivity of peroxides, there is relatively little known about their ET chemistry. It is this lack of kinetic data on ET to peroxides and endoperoxides and the possible relationship of this data to Saveant s model for dissociative ET that initiated our own interest in this chemistry.22 23 2 - - - ... 

More recently, Hasebe and Tsuchiya found that the photochemical decomposition of oxime esters provides a reasonably efficient method of alkylating pyridine when the latter is employed as the solvent <86TL3239>. The reaction gives all three regioisomers and the proportion of each was influenced to some extent by the nature of the radical intermediate. Thus, while the homobenzyl radical gave the C4 addition product as a minor constituent, both cyclopentyl radical and cyclohexyl radical gave C2 and C4 addition products in almost equal proportion (Scheme 8). 

In the photoaddition of acetone and other ketones to 1-, 2- and 1,2-di-methylimidazoles the products sire a-hydroxyalkylimidazoles (153) which are derived from the selective attack of excited carbonyl oxygen at C-5. In the case of 2-methylimidazole the products are the 4-mono- (8%) and 4,5-di- (14.5%) substituted compounds, but imidazole itself does not react. The suggestion that it is not a sufficiently electron-rich substrate is not particularly convincing. The reaction mechanism (Scheme 72) may reflect the greater radicd reactivity at C-5, and the comparative stabilities of the radical intermediates derived from carbonyl attack at this position. Hiickel calculations of radical reactivity indices show that, indeed, C-5 is more reactive, and the radical intermediate at C-5 is more stable than that at C-4, but a concerted cycloaddition could also give rise to the oxetane (152). Such an oxetane can be isolated in the photochemical addition of benzophenone to 1-acetylimidazole. 

Another interest in the use of triplet oxygen lies in the oxidation of dienes with photochemical activation (Type 1, above) with formation of endoperoxides as products. The first example of this reaction was observed in the early 1970 s. Thus, reaction of ergosteryl acetate (107) in the presence of trityl tetrafiuoroborate and Lewis acids in the presence of light yielded the endoperoxide 108 (equation 28), With certain Lewis acids this reaction could be thermally, rather than photochemically, activated. Cation radicals were shown to be the intermediate active species, as was borne out by a comparative oxidation of the isomeric lumisteryl acetate which was inactive under these conditions but reacted easily with singlet oxygen . This reaction was later extended to other substrates. Thus, the intermediacy of cation radicals was also indirectly observed by the fact that the r-butyl substituted 1,3-cyclodiene 109 gave a dimeric product 110 (equation 29) via the cation radical intermediate in addition to the usual endoperoxide llOa ,... 

The photochemically studied group VIIA dimers are mainly the Mj(CO),o complexes and their derivatives which contain unbridged, single metal-metal bonds. As with the group VIA dimers, flash photolysis and kinetic studies argue for an additional photoproduced intermediate besides the expected M(CO)j radicals, but the radical species still dominate the photochemistry of these compounds. ... 

Under the influence of UV light, 7V-methylindoles add dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate, generating cyclobuteno-fused products,and even simple aUcenes add in an apparent 2 -t 2 fashion to A-acyl-indoles, but the mechanism probably involves radical intermediates Other photochemical additions to form N-benzoyl-indolines fused to four-membered rings include addition to the carbonyl group in benzophenone and the double bond in methyl acrylate "... 

In addition to cation intermediates, radical intermediates can be used to introduce bromine or chlorine into a molecule. Both allylic and benzylic moieties form resonance stabilized free radicals that react with bromine or chlorine to give the corresponding halide. Allylic radicals are easily accessible from the corresponding allylic halides, particularly allyl iodides (secs. 13.3-13.5). Benzylic radicals are available from benzylic halides and also directly from the hydrocarbon, if it bears a benzylic hydrogen. Addition of bromine to 167 (in the presence benzoyl peroxide and photochemical initiation) gave benzylic bromide 168 in high... 

The carbonylation of aliphatic halides to form ketones is less common than the carbo-nylation of aryl and vinyl halides. However, examples of this process are known, and one example conducted under photochemical conditions to accelerate the oxidative addition of the alkyl halide via radical intermediates is shown in Equation 19.87. ... 

Kochi and co-workers reported the photochemical addition of various stilbenes to chloroanil 53, which is controlled by the charge-transfer (CT) activation of the precursor electron-donor/acceptor (EDA) complex. The [2-1-2]-cycloaddition products 54 were established by an x-ray structure of the trans-oxetane formed selectively in high yields. Time-resolved (fs/ps) spectroscopy revealed that the (singlet) ion-radical pair is the primary reaction intermediate and established the electron-transfer pathway for this Patern6-BUchi transformation. The alternative pathway via direct electronic activation of the carbonyl component led to the same oxetane regioisomers in identical ratios. Thus, a common electron-transfer mechanism applies that involves quenching of the excited quinone acceptor by the stilbene donor to afford a triplet ion-radical intermediate, which appears on a nanosecond/microsecond time scale. The spin multiplicities of the critical ion-pair intermediates in the two photoactivation paths determine the time scale of the reaction sequences and also the efficiency of the relatively slow ion-pair collapse k = 10 s ) to the 1,4-biradical that ultimately leads to the oxetane product 54. 

Although Ce(IV) oxidation of carboxylic acids is slow and incomplete under similar reaction conditions , the rate is greatly enhanced on addition of perchloric acid. No kinetics were obtained but product analysis of the oxidations of -butyric, isobutyric, pivalic and acetic acids indicates an identical oxidative decarboxylation to take place. Photochemical decomposition of Ce(IV) carbo-xylates is highly efficient unity) and Cu(ll) diverts the course of reaction in the same way as in the thermal oxidation by Co(IIl). Direct spectroscopic evidence for the intermediate formation of alkyl radicals was obtained by Greatorex and Kemp ° who photoirradiated several Ce(IV) carboxylates in a degassed perchloric acid glass at 77 °K in the cavity of an electron spin resonance spectro-... 

Having shown that the enol silyl ethers are effective electron donors for the [D, A] complex formation with various electron acceptors, let us now examine the electron-transfer activation (thermal and photochemical) of the donor/ acceptor complexes of tetranitromethane and quinones with enol silyl ethers for nitration and oxidative addition, respectively, via ion radicals as critical reactive intermediates. 

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