Singlet oxygen reaction intermediates 1,4-biradicals

The primary interaction of singlet oxygen, produced by energy transfer from the excited sensitizer, with the diene can give rise to an exciplet that then collapses to peroxide, to a 1,4-biradical or to a 1,4-zwitterion alternatively, the adduct is the result of a concerted action without the involvement of an intermediate. Detailed kinetic Diels-Alder investigations of singlet oxygen and furans indicate that the reactions proceed concertedly but are asynchronous with the involvement of an exciplex as the primary reaction intermediate [63]. 

Ab initio molecular orbital calculations, coupled with activation energies and entropies from experimental data, have been employed to determine the nature of the intermediates in the reaction of singlet oxygen with alkenes, enol ethers, and enamines.214 Allylic alkenes probably react via a perepoxide-like conformation, whereas the more likely pathway for enamines involves a zwitterionic cycloaddition mechanism. The reactions of enol ethers are more complex, since the relative stabilities of the possible intermediates (biradical, perepoxide, and zwitterionic) here depend sensitively on the substituents and solvent polarity. 

Ene reactions of simple alkenes with singlet oxygen have been studied by both computational and experimental methods.56,57,59 The reactions may proceed via a concerted or a stepwise mechanism [Equation (9)]. For a stepwise mechanism, four types of intermediates, biradical, zwitterion, perepoxide,... 

Zwitterions [32] and biradicals [33] have been also proposed as intermediates. These mechanistic possibilities were insufficient for rationalizing the lack of correlation between the reaction rates and solvent polarity [14,31], An early theoretical study by Goddard [33] favored a biradical intermediate. However, isotope effect studies [34], the lack of Markovnikov-type directing effects [14,31], and the fact that radical scavengers have no effect on the reaction eliminated a biradical mechanism for the singlet-oxygen-alkene ene reaction. 

Over the years several different mechanisms for the singlet oxygen ene reaction have been considered as depicted in Sch. 2. Biradical (mechanism B in Sch. 2) [10,11] and zwitterionic (mechanism C in Sch. 2) mechanisms have been considered as very unlikely for a variety of reasons including the facts that Markovnikov directing effects are not observed [4], radical scavengers have no influence on the reaction, only minor solvent effects are observed [12-14], and cis-trans isomerizations of the substrates do not occur [6], A dioxetane intermediate (mechanism D in Sch. 2) was considered very early [6] but this suggestion was dismissed when isolated dioxetanes were shown to cleave to the carbonyl compounds rather than rearrange to the allylic... 

The papers on simple alkenes [151] and enol ethers [152] discussed above brought the possibility of exciplex intermediacy to the attention of singlet oxygen chemists and since then several papers concerned with reactions involving allylic hydroperoxide, dioxetane and/or endoperoxide formation have invoked their participation [157-165], some as the sole intermediate, some as precursors to perepoxides, open zwitterions or biradicals. The molecules shown in structures 43-51, and relatives thereof, have been... 

Casal et al., 1984). On the other hand, reaction of a singlet carbene with oxygen should be quite slow. Not only do spin restrictions demand formation of a high-energy biradical intermediate, but oxygen does not normally react rapidly with electrophiles. 

The results for the carbon-oxygen attack are summarized schematically in Figure 7.38. The excited-state branch of the reaction path terminates in a conical intersection point at a CO distance of 177 pm before the biradical is fully formed (cf. Figure 7.37a). Thus the system can evolve back to the reactants or produce a transient C,C-biradical intermediate that is isolated by small barriers (< 3 kcal/mol) to fragmentation (TS,) or to rotation and ring closure to oxetane (TS2). The singlet and triplet biradical minima are essentially coincident. 

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