Reduction photoinitiated reactions

Cytochromes, catalases, and peroxidases all contain iron-heme centers. Nitrite and sulfite reductases, involved in N-O and S-O reductive cleavage reactions to NH3 and HS-, contain iron-heme centers coupled to [Fe ] iron-sulfur clusters. Photosynthetic reaction center complexes contain porphyrins that are implicated in the photoinitiated electron transfers carried out by the complexes. 

For a given aryl moiety, a rough correlation exists between the reduction potential and its reactivity in ET reactions.The order of reduction potential in Hquid ammonia. Phi > PhBr > PhNMe, > PhSPh > PhCl > PhF > PhOPh, coincides with the reactivity order determined under photoinitiation. By using competition experiments of pairs of halobenzenes toward CH2COBu-t ions under photoinitiation, the span in reactivity from fluorobenzene to iodobenzene was found to be about 100,000. Quantum yields of photoinitiated reactions have been used as a quahtative measure of the chain length. The quantum yields for substitution of haloarenes with nitrile-stabilized carbanions range from 7 to 31 in Hquid ammonia. " Quantum yields from 50 to 20 have been determined for the substitution of halonaphthoxides and iodobenzene by (EtOljPO ions. ... 

Oxygen has two possible interactions during the polymerization process [94], and these reactions are illustrated in Fig. 2. The first of these is a quenching of the excited triplet state of the initiator. When this quenching occurs the initiator will absorb the light and move to its excited state, but it will not form the radical or radicals that initiate the polymerization. A reduction in the quantum yield of the photoinitiator will be observed. The second interaction is the reaction with carbon based polymerizing radicals to form less reactive peroxy radicals. The rate constant for the formation of peroxy radicals has been found to be of the order of 109 1/mol-s [94], Peroxy radicals are known to have rate constants for reaction with methyl methacrylate of 0.241/mol-s [100], while polymer radicals react with monomeric methyl methacrylate with a rate constant of 5151/mol-s [100], This difference implies that peroxy radicals are nearly 2000 time less reactive. Obviously, this indicates that even a small concentration of oxygen in the system can severely reduce the polymerization rate. 

Reduction reactions by light (photoreductions) can proceed by either addition of one or more electrons to an excited species or the photochemical hydrogenation of a substance. Reactions in which the substrate is not electronically excited are sometimes called photoinitiated reductions. 

In this article, we discuss several early examples of photoinitiated electron transfer reactions. We also follow the development of alternative methods to achieve one-electron oxidation and reduction. This general reaction type, of which the photo-induced reaction is a special case, pervades organic, bio-, and inorganic chemistry. 

A typical odour-intensive breakdown product generated by a-cleavage (Norrish I reaction) is benzaldehyde. Owing to recombination and reduction processes further secondary products such as benzil and acetone [50] result from the fragmentation. In principle, odourless photoinitiators can therefore certainly cause significant odour problems via their degradation products. 

As it is well known, nucleophilic substitution of a C-X bond, one of the key synthetic reactions with aliphatic compounds is severely limited with aromatic derivatives, where it occurs thermally only with electron-withdrawing substituted compounds and/or under severe conditions. Alternatives include time honored reactions involving the phenyl radical generated by decomposition of diazonium salts after a reductive step, such as the Meerwein and the Gomberg-Bachmann reactions, as well as the (often photoinitiated) SrnI reaction, where a (usually weak, e.g. carbon-iodine) bond is cleaved after monoelectronic reduction to give an aryl radical as the active inter-mediate that adds to an enolate, cyanide or other nucleophiles (and thus again with an aryl radical as the key intermediate. Scheme S). ... 

Bulk semiconductors and powders have been used as initiators for radical polymerization reactions [140-144], Recently the study has been extended to semiconductor nanoclusters [145-147]. It was found that polymerization of methyl methacrylate occurs readily using ZnO nanoclusters. Under the same experimental conditions, no polymerization occurred with bulk ZnO particles as photoinitiators [145], In a survey study, several semiconductor nanoclusters such as CdS and Ti02, in addition to ZnO, were found to be effective photoinitiators for a wide variety of polymers [146], In all cases nanoclusters are more effective than bulk semiconductor particles. A comparison of the quantum yields for polymerization of methyl methacrylate for different nanoclusters revealed that Ti02 < ZnO < CdS [146]. This trend is parallel with the reduction potential of the conduction band electron. The mechanism of polymerization is believed to be via anionic initiation, followed by a free-radical propagation step. 

Fragmentation processes of photoinitiators form a number of volatile products, which may contribute to indoor air pollution. Benzaldehyde and alkyl-substituted benzalde-hydes are usual components, because Norrish-I is the most important reaction for cleavage. Awell known example is l-phenyl-2-hydroxy-2-methyl-propane-l-one (PHMP). a-Cleavage generates two radicals in the first step. The benzoyl radical may recombine to form benzil, reduction of PHMP leads to l-phenyl-2-methy 1-1,2-propane and acetone, and recombination of the 2-hydroxypropyl radical gives 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-butanediol... 

For photoinitiation, the terms in d are absent the right-hand sides of Equations (1.21) and (1.22) become identical with both and JCh predicted to increase with reaction temperature. Since Equation (1.23) is unaffected by the change to photoinitiation, c< itributions from chain transfer increasingly counto-act the increase in jCn as the reaction temperature increases, ultimately leading to a reduction in jCn as the reaction temperature iiKreases further. 

Subsequent research showed the SrnI mechanism to occur with many other aromatic compounds. The reaction was found to be initiated by solvated electrons, by electrochemical reduction, and by photoinitiated electron transferNot only I, but also Br, Cl, F, SCeHs, N(CH3)3, and 0P0(0CH2CH3)2 have been foimd to serve as electrofuges. In addition to amide ion, phosphanions, thiolate ions, benzeneselenolate ion (C HsSe"), ketone and ester enolate ions, as well as the conjugate bases of some other carbon acids, have been identified as nucleophiles. The SrnI reaction was observed with naphthalene, phenanthrene, and other polynuclear aromatic systems, and the presence of alkyl, alkoxy, phenyl, carboxylate, and benzoyl groups on the aromatic ring does not interfere with the reaction. ... 

---