Topochemical solid-state synthesis

Figure 2 Topochemical solid-state synthesis of bis-adduct 9 and templated synthesis of tetrakis-adduct 11 in solution.

Scheme 10.13 Topochemically controlled solid-state synthesis of bisadduct 61 and subsequent cyclopropanation to give [2 4]-hexakisadduct 62. (i) 180°C, 10 min (ii) 40 equiv. diethyl bromomalonate, 40 equiv. DBU.

The ability of resorcinol to function as a linear template to organize reactants in the solid state for [2 + 2] photoreaction also led to a molecular solid-state synthesis by design.Specifically, cocrystallization of lA-bis[2-(4-pyridyl)ethenyl]benzene (1.4-bpeb) with 5-methoxy-resorcinol (5-OMe-res) yielded a four-component assembly. 2(5-OMe-res) 2(1,4-bpeb), wherein four olefins, as two reaction centers, conformed to the topochemical principle. UV irradiation of the solid produced, regio- and stereoselectively. a targeted [2.2]paracyclophane (yield 60%) (Fig. 4c). 

If we can effectively use the chirality of the molecules expressed by spontaneous crystallization, asymmetric synthesis using chiral crystals, which has been restricted to the topochemical solid-state photoreaction, becomes a general synthetic method playing the part of organic synthesis. ) In this review, a general method of chiral crystallization and a new advanced asymmetric synthesis using the chiral crystals in a non-topochemical process will be described. 

In late 1995, a team led by Vollhardt and Youngs reported their work on the strained PAM/PDM hybrid 80 [55]. Whereas the synthesis of 80 was not remarkable [Eq. (2)1, the solid-state behavior of the molecule was. X-ray crystallography revealed that the macrocycle was moderately strained, with the monoynes bent inward toward the center of the macrocycle by 3.9 -11.5° and the diyne unit bent outward by 8.6-11.2°. More importantly, crystal packing revealed that the diyne moieties were aligned in the prerequisite fashion for topochemical diacetylene polymerization to occur. Indeed, irradiation of crystals of 80 produced a violet... 

Photodimerization of cinnamic acids and its derivatives generally proceeds with high efficiency in the crystal (176), but very inefficiently in fluid phases (177). This low efficiency in the latter phases is apparently due to the rapid deactivation of excited monomers in such phases. However, in systems in which pairs of molecules are constrained so that potentially reactive double bonds are close to one another, the reaction may proceed in reasonable yield even in fluid and disordered states. The major practical application has been for production of photoresists, that is, insoluble photoformed polymers used for image-transfer systems (printed circuits, lithography, etc.) (178). Another application, of more interest here, is the use that has been made of mono- and dicinnamates for asymmetric synthesis (179), in studies of molecular association (180), and in the mapping of the geometry of complex molecules in fluid phases (181). In all of these it is tacitly assumed that there is quasi-topochemical control in other words, that the stereochemistry of the cyclobutane dimer is related to the prereaction geometry of the monomers in the same way as for the solid-state processes. 

The synthesis of cis-1,4 polymers was also tried by e use of monomers with an s-cis conformation. The solid-state photopolymerization of pyridone derivatives, which is a six-membered cyclic diene amide and is a tautomer of 2-hydroxypyridine, was attempted [100]. Pyridones make hydrogen-bonded cocrystals with a carboxylic acid in the crystalline state. Because the cyclic structure fixes its s-cis conformation, if the polymerization proceeds, a cis-2,5 polymer would be obtained. Actually, however, the photopolymerization did not occur, contrary to our expectation, but [4-1-4] photodimerization proceeded when the carbon-to-carbon distance for the dimerization was small (less than 4 A) [101]. A closer stacking distance of the 2-pyridone moieties might be required for the topochemical polymerization of cychc diene monomers. 

Prior to the development of tether-directed functionalization methods, Krautler and co-workers developed a very elegant topochemically controlled, solid-state group-transfer synthesis [12,13] to obtain the trans-1 bisanthracene adduct 9 (Figure 2). 

On the other hand, since the concept of topochemically-controlled reactions was established, various approaches to asymmetric synthesis using solid-state photoreaction... 

The solid-state photoreaction using chiral crystals is an absolute asymmetrical synthesis crystallization of a nonchiral compound in a chiral crystal followed by a topochemical photoreaction. A similar interesting case of absolute asymmetrical synthesis has been reported by others including Addadi et al. [54]. 

Since the concept of topochemically controlled reactions was established, various approaches to asymmetric synthesis using a solid-state reaction have been attempted, most actively by the research group at the Weismann Institute. Their studies have been concerned with the bimolecular reactions of chiral crystals in the solid state. In these studies, successful absolute asymmetric synthesis has been performed by using topochemically controlled four-centered photocyclodimerizations of a series of unsymmetrically substituted diolefin crystals. Research on reactivity in the crystalline state has been extended in recent years to a variety of new systems, and many absolute asymmetric syntheses have been provided. Successful examples of absolute asymmetric synthesis using chiral crystals are listed in Tables 2 to 4, which are divided into three categories intermolecular photoreaction in the solid state (Table 2), intramolecular photoreaction in the solid state (Table 3, A-D), and asymmetric induction in the solid-gas and homogeneous reactions (Table 4). 

Matsumoto, A., Tanaka, T. and Oka, K. (2005) Stereospecific radical polymerization of substituted benzyl muconates in the solid state under topochemical control. Synthesis, 1479-1489. 

Abstract. The asymmetric synthesis of chiral polymers by topochemically controlled polymerization in chiral crystals is discussed. Following a short survey of topochemical polymerization in the solid state and some comments on chiral crystals, we present the requirements for the performance of asymmetric polymerization based on [2+2]-photocycloaddition. The planning and execution of two successful polymerizations of this sort are described. In the first, we start with a chiral non-racemic monomer and obtain optically active cyclobutane oligomers. The optical yields of the dimer and trimer were quantitative on the scale of N.M.R. sensitivity. In the second reaction we start with a racemate, and by the processes of crystallization in a chiral structure and solid-state reaction we generate an optically active polymer, in the absence of any outside chiral agent. The possible application of this novel method to additional systems is discussed. 

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