Photochemical reactions aromatic electrophilic substitution

No electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions of toluene, ethylbenzene, and cumene occur with BBrj in the dark the electrophile is too weak for these reactions. The photochemical reactions followed by hydrolysis give the p-isomers of the corresponding boronic acids as the major products (delocalization band in Scheme 9) [44]. 

Ferrocene, Fe(Ti5-C5H5)2, and related cyclopentadienyl complexes of transition metals in fact are far more thermally stable, less reactive substances than ionic cyclopentadienides, and have an extensive derivative chemistry that is typically aromatic in that their C-H bonds can undergo such electrophilic substitution reactions as Friedel-Crafts alkylation or acylation, nitration, and so on. Moreover, as a substituent, the ferrocenyl group (ri -f sl l5)Fc(ri -( 5l I4) (=R) is even more effective than a phenyl substituent in stabilizing carbenium ions [RCH2]+. The redox and photochemical properties of many metaUocenyl residues make them versatile substituents with many chemical and materials applications. ... 

The interest in photoreactions that involve chemical change in an aromatic ring continues at a high level. Aromatic photosubstitution reactions have assumed a greater importance than they once had, but the classification of these reactions on a mechanistic basis is not easy because one of several different mechanisms may operate, and published information may not be sufficient to distinguish between the likely possibilities. However, it is clear that straightforward photochemical electrophilic substitution is as yet of very limited importance. 

The aryl-thallium bond is thus apparently capable of displacement either by electrophilic or by suitable nucleophilic reagents. Coupled with its propensity for homolytic cleavage (spontaneous in the case of ArTlIj compounds, and otherwise photochemically induced), ArTlXj compounds should be capable of reacting with a wide variety of reagents under a wide variety of conditions. Since the position of initial aromatic thallation can be controlled to a remarkable degree, the above reactions may be only representative of a remarkably versatile route to aromatic substitution reactions in which organothallium compounds play a unique and indispensable role. 

Such cyclic peroxides have been proposed as intermediates in photochemical and chemiluminescent reactions of aromatic compounds with oxygen (4, 5, 44) and in the biological hydroxylation of aromatic compounds (22, 23, 34). In dilute ferrous ion solution the cyclic peroxides could decompose ionically to give a predominantly electrophilic distribution of substituted phenols, while at higher concentrations the ferrous ion would cleave the peroxide bond homolytically this, followed by loss of water, would give a more random pattern of substituted phenols. 

Tetrahydroisoquinolines were also prepared by an electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction of 2-amidoacroleins. Exposure of IV-aryl-substituted 3-amido-1,3-dioxins 82 to Lewis acids results in retrocycloadditions to afford 2-amidoacroleins 83 and concomitant electrophilic aromatic substitution to afford tetrahydroisoquinolines 84 <01OL3349>. The synthesis of isoquinoline derivatives via cyclization reactions received attention as well. Some examples include the preparation of isoquinolines by a photocyclization of l-methoxy-2-azabuta-l,3-dienes <01TL3575>. The photochemically induced preparation of 1-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphtho[2,l-/ isoquinolines was also reported <01T1981>. 

Iodine in combination with [bis(acyloxy)iodo]arenes is a classical reagent combination for the oxidative iodination of aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds [99], A typical iodination procedure involves the treatment of electron-rich arenes with the PhI(OAc)2-iodine system in a mixture of acetic acid and acetic anhydride in the presence of catalytic amounts of concentrated sulfuric acid at room temperature for 15 min [100,101]. A solvent-free, solid state oxidative halogenation of arenes using PhI(OAc)2 as the oxidant has been reported [102]. Alkanes can be directly iodinated by the reaction with the PhI(OAc)2-iodine system in the presence of f-butanol under photochemical or thermal conditions [103]. Several other iodine(in) oxidants, including recyclable hypervalent iodine reagents (Chapter 5), have been used as reagents for oxidative iodination of arenes [104-107]. For example, a mixture of iodine and [bis(trifluoroacetoxy)iodo]benzene in acetonitrile or methanol iodinates the aromatic ring of methoxy substituted alkyl aryl ketones to afford the products of electrophilic mono-iodination in 68-86% yield [107]. 

Mangion, D., Frizzle, M., Arnold, R.D., and Cameron, T.S., The photochemistry of acrylonitrile with methoxylated naphthalenes introducing the photochemical electrophile-olefin combination, aromatic substitution (Photo-EONAS) reaction. Synthesis, 8,1215, 2001. 

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