Synthesis photocycloaddition reactions

In recent years the application of photocycloaddition reactions to organic synthesis has been growing in importance. - The procedure described is illustrative of a general method based on a photocycloaddition reaction for the introduction of an activated alkyl group specifically to the a-carhon atom of an a,/3-unsaturated cyclohexenone. Especially significant is the fact that the method is also applicable to... 

In this synthesis, we have witnessed the dramatic productivity of the intramolecular enone-olefin [2+2] photocycloaddition reaction. This single reaction creates three contiguous and fully substituted stereocenters and a strained four-membered ring that eventually provides the driving force for a skeletal rearrangement to give isocomene. 

The literature of diene and polyene photochemistry provides many cases of synthetically useful reactions. As a result, certain arbitrary decisions have been made regarding what is covered in this chapter. For example, intramolecular [2 + 2]-photocycloaddition reactions of a, >-dienes can be formally included under the general rubric of diene photochemistry. However, we have chosen to restrict our discussion to dienes and polyenes which constitute a self-contained chromophore, viz. conjugated, cross-conjugated and 1,4-diene systems. Likewise, arene-olefin photocycloadditions will not be considered. These two broad classes of photoreactions have been applied extensively in synthesis, and have been the subject of recent reviews3,4. 

There are a wide variety of other synthetic methods for the preparation of oxetanes however, most of these are not very general. They frequently require starting materials which are difficult to prepare, and rarely give high yields (never as high as the better photochemical preparations). It is clear then that in comparison with the alternative methods of oxetane synthesis, the photocycloaddition reaction is more generally useful and convenient. This synthetic utility justifies a brief description of experimental conditions. 

Synthesis of tetracyclic compounds by the photoreaction of cyanoarenes with benzyhc donors via photoinduced electron transfer is one of the unusual (3 + 3) photocycloaddition reactions (Scheme 110). It is not treated here and we concede to Albini et al. s excellent review [36]. 

Among the reactions applied in the synthesis of fullerene derivatives cycloaddition reactions such as [2 + 1]-, [2 + 2]-, [3 + 2] and [4 + 2] cycloadditions play a dominant role. In these reactions ring-fused fullerene derivatives are obtained, at least with incorporation of heteroatoms such as oxygen, nitrogen, or silicon. In this section photochemical reactions leading to cycloalkyl ring-fused fullerene adducts will be presented. Photocycloaddition reactions leading to C6o-fused heterocycles will be discussed later. 

As mentioned previously, photocycloaddition reactions are a useful method for obtaining fullerene derivatives fused directly to heterocycles. Such compounds have attracted much interest because they might have interesting properties, e.g., amino acid fullerene derivatives as biologically active compounds or pyrrolidino-fullerenes as key precursors for a great number of fullerenes donor-acceptor bridged dyads and triads. Fullerenes functionalized with silicon compounds are of great interest in materials science. The synthesis of these compounds will be described in this section. 

Smith s synthesis of (—)-echinosporin stands out for its good stereo-and regiocontrol at every stage. Its large number of highly chemoselective reactions, and its use of an asymmetric [2 + 2]-photocycloaddition reaction for constructing the m-fused 6,5-bicyclic core are also commendable. The latter reaction provides a beautiful illustration of how properly harnessed photochemistry can be decisively deployed for the stereocontrolled synthesis of complex natural products. 

Chappell, D. and Russell, A.T. (2006) From a-cedrene to crinipellin B and onward 25 years of the alkene-arene meta-photocycloaddition reaction in natural product synthesis. Organic tg Biomolecular Chemistry, 4 (24), 4409-4430. 

Bach, T. (2002) Stereoselective total synthesis of the tricyclic sesquiterpene (i)-kelsoene by an intramolecular Cu(I)-catalyzed [2 + 2]-photocycloaddition reaction. Synlett, 1305-1307. 

Three typical procedures will be presented (Sch. 19). The first represents one of the (only) two enone + alkene photocycloaddition reactions which have published as a procedure in Organic Synthesis [75], the second one is of... 

Selig P, Bach T (2006) Photochemistry of 4-(aminoethyl)quinolones Enantioselective synthesis of tetracyclic tctrahydro-1 af/-pyrido[4, 3 2,3]cyclo-buta[l,2-c]quinoline-2,11(377,877)-diones by intra- and intermolecular [2+2]-photocycloaddition reactions in solution. J Org Chem 71 5662-5673... 

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