Singlet state addition reactions

These singlet and triplet state species exhibit the important differences in chemical behavior to be expected. The former species, with their analogy to carbonium ions, are powerful electrophiles and the relative rates of their reaction with a series of substrates increases with the availability of electrons at the reaction center their addition reactions with olefins are stereospecific. Triplet state species are expected to show the characteristics of radicals i.e., the relative rates of additions to olefins do not follow the same pattern as those of electrophilic species and the additions are not stereospecific. 

N-Aminobenzoxazolin-2-one (4), which was readily prepared by animation of benzoxazolin-2-one with hydroxylamine-O-sulfonic acid, is also a useful nitrene precursor (Scheme 2.2). Oxidation of 4 with lead(iv) acetate in the presence of a conjugated diene resulted in exclusive 1,2-addition of nitrene 5, to yield vinylazir-idine (6) in 71 % yield [6]. The formation of vinylaziridines through 1,2-additions of methoxycarbonylnitrene (2) or amino nitrene 5 contrasts with the claimed 1,4-ad-dition of nitrene itself to butadiene [7]. Since the reaction proceeded stereospecif-ically even at high dilution, the nitrene 5 appears to be generated in a resonance-stabilized singlet state, which is probably the ground state [8]. 

From the point of view of both synthetic and mechanistic interest, much attention has been focused on the addition reaction between carbenes and alkenes to give cyclopropanes. Characterization of the reactivity of substituted carbenes in addition reactions has emphasized stereochemistry and selectivity. The reactivities of singlet and triplet states are expected to be different. The triplet state is a diradical, and would be expected to exhibit a selectivity similar to free radicals and other species with unpaired electrons. The singlet state, with its unfilled p orbital, should be electrophilic and exhibit reactivity patterns similar to other electrophiles. Moreover, a triplet addition... 

That oxetane formation results from a singlet state reaction follows from the following evidence (a) Acetone fluorescence is quenched by addition of the olefin, (b) oxetane formation is relatively insensitive to piperylene, and (c) cis-trans isomerization of the olefin is quenched at high olefin concentrations but oxetane formation is not affected. Since oxetane formation was... 

Here A, lA, and3A represent anthracene in the ground state, the first excited singlet state and first excited triplet state, respectively. In addition, I represents the onium salt initiation, while Rs and Rt correspond to the reactive centers formed by reaction of the onium salt with the excited singlet and triplet state anthracene, respectively. 

In the oxygen-independent Type III reactions the excited/sensi-tized psoralen donates its excitation energy directly to, or reacts with, the target compound. This occurs if the substrate and the target compound (e.g., DNA) are already in close proximity or intercalated. The reactions will proceed very rapidly via the excited singlet state, and are, typically, cyclization reactions or electron-transfer between the sensitizer and the target. In addition, the psoralen can be ionized, either directly or via the excited state, and react with the target compound in the form of a radical cation. Furocoumarins are also employed in treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and some infections connected with AIDS, by so-called photopheresis processes [71, 74-76]. In this case, peripheral blood is exposed to, e.g., photoactivated (sensitized) 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) in an extracorporeal flow system. This... 

This experimental fact indicates that the singlet and triplet diphenylcarbene are in thermal equilibrium and that Aigc is fast because the Ph2C-state is the ground state. The relatively low nonstereospecifity can be explained by assuming a) a faster addition of the singlet or b) most of the triplet undergoing the abstraction reaction and only little of it the addition reaction. 

In contrast to 2-alkylarylcarbenes, triplet carbonyl carbenes do not abstract H from 5- or e-CH bonds. Photolysis of diazo compounds (7) in methanol gave products due to Wolff rearrangement (8) and 0-H insertion (9). Sensitized photolysis led, in addition, to the H-abstraction product (10). Analysis of the results indicated that a large proportion of the insertion product (9) arises from the excited diazo compound and that spin inversion of the triplet carbene is faster than H-abstraction from the solvent. Intersystem crossing to the singlet state is a major reaction of all triplet carbonyl carbenes that are not rapidly scavenged intramolecularly. 

In addition to energetic considerations, however, there are other factors such as spin conservation that also determine the importance of various sets of products. As discussed in Chapter 3.A, since the ground state of 03 is a singlet, dissociation into either two singlet states (e.g., reaction (5)) or into two triplet states is expected to predominate. However, as discussed shortly, both hot-band absorption by rovibra-tionally excited 03 and by a spin-forbidden process are believed to contribute significantly to the atmospheric photochemistry of 03. 

In 1963, E. J. Bowen published his classic review The Photochemistry of Aromatic Hydrocarbon Solutions, in which he described two major reaction pathways for PAHs irradiated in organic solvents photodimerization and photooxidation mediated by the addition of singlet molecular oxygen, 02 ) (or simply 102), to a PAH (e.g., anthracene). For details on the spectroscopy and photochemistry of this lowest electronically excited singlet state of molecular oxygen, see Chapter 4.A, the monograph by Wayne (1988), and his review article (1994). For compilations of quantum yields of formation and of rate constants for the decay and reactions of 02( A), see Wilkinson et al., 1993 and 1995, respectively. 

A deeper understanding of carbenic philicity requires a more detailed representation of the addition reaction transition state than that afforded by structure 4. Early MO calculations furnished structure 6 as representative of the transition state for addition of a singlet carbene to an alkene (Fig. 7.6). " ... 

Thus, if a mixture of these hydrocarbons reacts with a singlet state, then the addition product will consist entirely of undeuterated (do) and deuterated(i i2) compounds. If some of the reaction occurs by the hydrogen abstraction-recombination route, then some crossed products (di and/or du compounds) will be formed. By using this technique, it has been shown that, while some of the DPC-cyclohexane adduct (34) is formed by combination of radical pairs, there is no evidence of crossover product present in the FL-cyclohexane adduct (37). The results are interpreted by assuming rapid spin state equilibration relative to the reaction of either spin state with solvent. The larger amount of singlet chemistry of FL relative to DPC can then be explained if the S-T gap is smaller in FL than in DPC. 

---