Triplet-benzene-sensitized decomposition

A similar biradical mechanism was postulated in an earlier study of the triplet-benzene-sensitized decomposition of 4-pentenal (136). This mechanism requires an efficient intramolecular... 

Takenaka and Lemal subsequently undertook an extensive study of the perfluorobenzene oxide (3)/perfluorooxepin (4) system.13,14 After considerable effort, benzene oxide 3 was successfully prepared by ozonization of tricyclic precursor 5 and photolytic decomposition of the resultant ozonides. Oxepin 4 was not observed directly, but was estimated by NMR computer simulations to be present in small proportion (3 %) at 55"C. The principal reaction of 3 is its rearrangement to cyclohexadienone 2, which occurs at room temperature in polar solvents, by heating in nonpolar solvents, or in the presence of Lewis acids. Photolysis of 3 with benzophenone as triplet sensitizer also produces 2. Furthermore, attempts to trap the oxepin, for example by treatment with bromine in the dark, result in cyclohexadienone 2. 

In contrast with fluorenylidene, singlet-triplet equilibrium in the carbene derived by photoelimination of nitrogen from the diazodihydroboraanthracene (57) is slow. Direct irradiation affords singlet carbene which reacts with propan-2-ol to give the ether (58), whereas 2-acetonaphthone-sensitized irradiation yields triplet carbene which undergoes non-stereospecific addition to alkenes. Products obtained by irradiation of 3-diazo-2,5-diphenylpyrrole can arise via the intermediacy of singlet and triplet carbenes. Decomposition of the pyrrole (59) in the presence of benzene, for example, yields the 2H-cycloocta[c]pyiTole (60) as the major product. 

Triplet quantum yields for benzene vapor in collislonally deactivating systems have been estimated by a number of techniques (Table 12), involving sensitized isomeration, decomposition, or... 

By competitive methods Ishikawa and Noyes (226) (sensitized biacetyl phosphorescence) and Cundall and Davies (159) (butene-2 isomerization) both estimated the triplet lifetime to be of the order of 10 ys. In a reexamination of the butene-2 system, Lee (227) estimated a value of 100 ys, a finding confirmed by Cundall and Dunnicliff (105). An examination of the kinetics of the benzene photosensitized composition of cyclopentanone decomposition allowed a value of longer than 3 ys to be deduced. This type of experiment is far from satisfactory since photochemical processes can Intervene at low pressures, and impurities and the quenching effects of photoproducts can affect the results. These problems can only be overcome by some form of direct measurement. Parmenter and Ring (228) used a flash method in which 20 torrs of benzene and 0.01 torr of biacetyl were submitted to a 20 J,... 

Pseudo-stilbene type azobenzenes are not as stable under UV irradiation as the azobenzenes. Irick and Pacifici found that in de-aererated alcoholic solvents, photoreduction gives the hydrazo compound with a yield of ca. 10 at 254 nm irradiation.Albini et aF found yields of one order higher, but at 313 nm and longer wavelength irradiation, the decomposition is virtually absent. Some caveat is necessary when triplet-sensitizing additives are present, because irradiation under air does not lead to photoreduction. Benzophenone-sensitized reduction in benzene proceeds with a yield of... 

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