Photochemically Induced Radical Reactions

Although there exist numerous ground state reactions, photochemically induced asymmetric radical additions can be very efficient and even highly stereoselective [125]. Furthermore, no particular functionalization of the starting material is necessary prior to the formation of a C-C bond. In this context, the photosensitized addition of alcohols, cyclic acetals, and tertiary amines to electron-deficient alkenes has been particularly studied. This will be illustrated by a few examples. 

The radical X is formed by homolysis of the X—R bond either thermally or photolytically. In the reactions of alcohols with lead tetraacetate evidence suggests that the X—R bond (X = 0, R = Pb(OAc)3) has ionic character. In this case the oxy radical is formed by a one electron transfer (thermally or photochemically induced) from oxygen to lead. 

For example, photolysis of a suspension of an arylthallium ditrifluoro-acetate in benzene results in the formation of unsymmetrical biphenyls in high yield (80-90%) and in a high state of purity 152). The results are in full agreement with a free radical pathway which, as suggested above, is initiated by a photochemically induced homolysis of the aryl carbon-thallium bond. Capture of the resulting aryl radical by benzene would lead to the observed unsymmetrical biphenyl, while spontaneous disproportionation of the initially formed Tl(II) species to thallium(I) trifluoroacetate and trifluoroacetoxy radicals, followed by reaction of the latter with aryl radicals, accounts for the very small amounts of aryl trifluoroacetates formed as by-products. This route to unsymmetrical biphenyls thus complements the well-known Wolf and Kharasch procedure involving photolysis of aromatic iodides 171). Since the most versatile route to the latter compounds involves again the intermediacy of arylthallium ditrifluoroacetates (treatment with aqueous potassium iodide) 91), these latter compounds now occupy a central role in controlled biphenyl synthesis. 

Besides the numerous examples of anionic/anionic processes, anionic/pericydic domino reactions have become increasingly important and present the second largest group of anionically induced sequences. In contrast, there are only a few examples of anionic/radical, anionic/transition metal-mediated, as well as anionic/re-ductive or anionic/oxidative domino reactions. Anionic/photochemically induced and anionic/enzyme-mediated domino sequences have not been found in the literature during the past few decades. It should be noted that, as a consequence of our definition, anionic/cationic domino processes are not listed, as already stated for cationic/anionic domino processes. Thus, these reactions would require an oxidative and reductive step, respectively, which would be discussed under oxidative or reductive processes. 

New cyclizations via photochemically generated aminyl radicals have been reported, including further examples of the Hofmann-Loeffler-Freytag reaction.313 Intramolecular addition of an aminyl radical, generated by photochemically induced nitrogen chlorine bond homoysis, is also accompanied by cyclization as illustrated by the conversion of the unsaturated N-chloroamide 378 to the pyrrolidine 379.314 Piperidine formation can also... 

The importance of tertiary amines in the photochemically induced electron transfer reactions has also been addressed5. Direct irradiation of aromatic or aliphatic amines often leads to the scission of C—N, N—H or C—H bonds that lead to the subsequent chemical reactions by radical pathways6. In this section, photochemical reactions of amines reported since 1978 will be considered with emphasis on photoinduced electron transfer. Photochemical reactions of inorganic and organometallic compounds will not be included unless photochemistry of amine moieties is the primary interest. 

The major fate mechanism of atmospheric 2-hexanone is photooxidation. This ketone is also degraded by direct photolysis (Calvert and Pitts 1966), but the reaction is estimated to be slow relative to reaction with hydroxyl radicals (Laity et al. 1973). The rate constant for the photochemically- induced transformation of 2-hexanone by hydroxyl radicals in the troposphere has been measured at 8.97x10 cm / molecule-sec (Atkinson et al. 1985). Using an average concentration of tropospheric hydroxyl radicals of 6x10 molecules/cm (Atkinson et al. 1985), the calculated atmospheric half-life of 2-hexanone is about 36 hours. However, the half-life may be shorter in polluted atmospheres with higher OH radical concentrations (MacLeod et al. 1984). Consequently, it appears that vapor-phase 2-hexanone is labile in the atmosphere. 

The first step in the peroxide-induced reaction is the decomposition of the peroxide to form a free radical. The oxygen-induced reaction may involve the intermediate formation of a peroxide or a free radical olefin-oxygen addition product. (In the case of thermal and photochemical reactions, the free radical may be formed by the opening up of the double bond or, more probably, by dissociation of a carbon-hydrogen bond in metal alkyl-induced reactions, decomposition of the metal alkyl yields alkyl radicals.)... 

A hydroxymethyl group can be introduced (ArH —> ArCH2OH) by several variations of this method.345 Alkylation of these substrates can also be accomplished by generating the alkyl radicals in other ways from hydroperoxides and FeS04,346 from alkyl iodides and H Oi-FefH),347 from carboxylic acids and lead tetraacetate, or from the photochemically induced decarboxylation of carboxylic acids by iodosobenzene diacetate.348 The reaction has also been applied to acetophenone and ferrocene.349... 

The degradation can be photochemically induced (a) homolytic or (b) heterolytic cleavage at the weaker bonds. The photolysis of the type (a) may lead to elimination reactions and the type (b) may lead to free radical formation. The point of bond cleavage may not be the seat for light absorption. The energy can migrate from unit to unit until it finds itself at the seat of reaction. 

Salomon J, Elad D (1973) Photochemical reactions of nucleic acid constituents. Peroxide-initiated reactions of purines with alcohols. J Org Chem 38 3420-3421 Salomon J, Elad D (1974) Ultraviolet and y-ray-induced reactions of nucleic acid constituents. Reactions of purines with amines. Photochem Photobiol 19 21-27 Samuni A, Neta P (1973) Hydroxyl radical reaction with phosphate esters and the mechanism of phosphate cleavage. J Phys Chem 77 2425-2429... 

Simple homolysis of the C-I bond by heating or by light is the most straightforward approach and was the first used for adding perfluoroalkyl iodides to olefins. One presumes that both the thermal and the photochemically induced addition reactions of perfluoroalkyl radicals proceed via free radical chain reactions as depicted in the Scheme below. However, the conditions of these reactions are rarely ideal for preparative purposes because high temperatures are required for the thermolytic process and long photolysis times are required for the photolytic method [60]. 

The photo-initiated addition process appears to have general applicability, although it can require extensive photolysis times [194-196]. Indeed, photolytic generation of RF- from RFI has been the method used to add Rf- to C60 and C70, not for synthetic purpose, but to examine epr spectra of the resulting radical species [197-199]. A good comprehensive review of the early work on thermal and photochemically-induced free radical addition reactions to olefins can be found in Sosnovsky s book [60]. 

Sloan et al. [93, 141] noted the formation of reverse adducts when triflu-oroethylene was telomerised either photochemically with fluorotribromo-methane [93] or in the presence of radical initiator with CBr4 or CBr3H [141]. Haszeldine et al. [252-255] investigated the telomerisation of such a monomer with different perfluoroalkyl iodides (CF3I, i-C3F7I) and they showed that the thermal initiation led to a higher amount of reverse adduct in contrast to the photochemical induced reaction. Recently, we have shown that a real telomerisation occurs when the reaction was initiated thermally since the first five adducts were formed. 

Since the addition of formamide to olefins is induced photochemically as well as by peroxides at elevated temperatures, it may be safe to assume that we deal here with a free radical reaction. Let us apply this assumption to interpret the results. A reasonable free radical derived from formamide would be a carbamoyl radical CONH2 which can be formed by loss of a hydrogen atom from formamide. Experimental data show that irradiation of formamide in the presence of acetone and in the absence of an olefin leads to the formation of considerable amounts of oxamide. 

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