Topochemically Controlled Solid-state Reactions

We have thus far discussed in this section some of the factors associated with crystallization in chiral structures, and pointed out that the molecules in such structures must adopt conformations which are to some extent chiral, whether or not they do so in disperse phases. Because of the chirality of both the molecule and of its environment, if the molecule takes part in a topochemically controlled solid-state reaction it is conceivable that chiral non-racemic products would be produced. In fact two successful asymmetric syntheses of this sort have been carried out in this laboratory. 

Eq. 2-248) [Braun and Wegner, 1983 Hasegawa et al., 1988, 1998]. This polymerization is a solid-state reaction involving irradiation of crystalline monomer with ultraviolet or ionizing radiation. The reaction is a topochemical or lattice-controlled polymerization in which reaction proceeds either inside the monomer crystal or at defect sites where the product structure and symmetry are controlled by the packing of monomer in the lattice or at defect sites, respectively. 

In the crystal structure of the polymer phase (Fig. 17a), the polymer chains are aligned along the c-axis and the distance (3.71 A) between the centres of adjacent cyclobutane and pyrazine rings corresponds to half the c-axis repeat of the unit cell. For comparison between the monomer and polymer structures, an overlay plot of these structures is shown in Fig. 17b. It is clear that the solid-state reaction is associated with only very small atomic displacements at the site of the [2-1-2] photocyclization reaction (the displacement of the carbon atoms of the C=C double bonds of monomer molecules on forming the cyclobutane ring of the polymer is only ca. 0.8 A for one pair of carbon atoms and ca. 1.6 A for the other pair). Such small displacements are completely in accord with the assignment of this solid-state reaction as a topochemical transformation [124—127] (in which the crystal structure of the reactant monomer phase imposes geometric control on the pathway of the... 

When the reactivity of a solid is controlled by the crystal structure, rather than by the chemical constituents of the crystal, the reaction is said to be topochemically controlled. The nature of products obtained in a decomposition reaction is frequently decided by topochemical factors, particularly when the reaction occurs within the solid without separation of a new phase (Thomas, 1974 Manohar, 1974). A topotactic reaction is a solid state reaction where the atomic arrangement in the reactant crystal remains largely unaffected during the course of the reaction, except for changes in dimension in one or more directions. Dehydration of Mo03-2H20 is a typical example of a topotactic reaction ... 

Several reviews deal with the solid-state reactions of simple inorganic salts and of organic compounds.1-8 The essential differences between solid-state reactions and reactions in solution can be ascribed to the fact that solid-state reactions occur within the constraining environment of the crystal lattice. The reactant crystal lattice can control both the kinetic features of a reaction, and the nature of the products. In many solid-phase reactions the separation distances and mutual orientations of reactants in the solid determine the product. Such reactions are said to be topo-chemically controlled.9 Topochemical control of a reaction product is analogous to kinetic control in solution. The product is not necessarily the thermodynamically most stable product available to the system, but is rather the one dictated by the reaction pathway available in the constraining environment of the solid. 

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). 

Epitaxial polymerization may allow complete topochemical control of a variety of solid state reactions to produce single crystals. This technique should continue to prove to be a powerful tool in the molecular engineering of thin polymer films. 

It has long been known that the photochemistry of crystalline compounds proceeds differently than upon irradiation in solution one of the best examples is that of the cinnamic acids and the research of Ciamician and Silber in 1902. Control of solid-state reactions was postidated by Cohen and Schmidt in 1964 to involve minimum molecular motion in the crystal. This approach has been termed the topochemical principle, perhaps otherwise known as least motion. Cohen and Schmidt also advanced the idea of a molecule reacting in a cavity created by surrounding neighbors. 

In general, photoinert auxiliary molecules have been used as templating agents to direct double bonds in parallel orientations of single olefins and with distances smaller than 4.2 A. These geometrical parameters are strictly required as previous steps in order to achieve the photoreaction via topochemical control and then the template must be liberated from the expected product. We envisage that an alternative way to increase the level of sophistication in the design of solid state reactions is the possibility to extend the self-assembly of two or more potentially reactive unsaturated molecules controlled by directional supramolecular synthons. 

These characteristics can be derived from a polymerization of crystalline monomers controlled topochemically. Topotactic reaction geno-ally involve a strong correspondence between the lattices of the monomer crystal and the resulting polymer crystal. Hence, the topochemical solid state reaction occurs when sufficiently intense thermal mobility of molecules takes place in the lattice, and the distance between active centers for the polymerization in the neighboring molecules should not exceed 3.7 A for C — O interactions All monomers mentioned above show quite close C — O interactions. 

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