Carbenes triplet

Figure 2-55. Singlet and triplet carbenes are easily distinguished in RAMSES notation.

Photopolymerization of MMA was also carried out in the presence of visible light (440 nm) using /3-PCPY as the photoinitiator at 30°C [20]. The initiator and monomer exponent values were calculated as 0.5 and 1.0, respectively, showing ideal kinetics. An average value of kp /kt was 4.07 x 10 L-mol -s . Kinetic data and ESR studies indicated that the overall polymerization takes place by a radical mechanism via triplet carbene formation, which acts as the sources of the initiating radical. 

Polymerization takes place by triplet carbene formation. 

As to other carbenes, some react as triplets, some as singlets, and others as singlets or triplets, depending on how they are generated. There are, however, molecules that generate persistent triplet carbenes. 

There is a limitation to the use of stereospecificity of addition as a diagnostic test for singlet or triplet carbenes.When carbenes are generated by photolytic methods, they are often in a highly excited singlet state. When they add to the double bond, the addition is stereospecific but the cyclopropane formed carries excess... 

This is not surprising, since triplet carbenes are free radicals. But singlet carbenes can also give this reaction, though in this case only halogen atoms are abstracted, not hydrogen. 

UV photolysis (Chapman et al., 1976 Chedekel et al., 1976) and vacuum pyrolysis (Mal tsev et al., 1980) of trimethylsilyldiazomethane [122]. The silene formation occurred as a result of fast isomerization of the primary reaction product, excited singlet trimethylsilylcarbene [123] (the ground state of this carbene is triplet). When the gas-phase reaction mixture was diluted with inert gas (helium) singlet-triplet conversion took place due to intermolecular collisions and loss of excitation. As a result the final products [124] of formal dimerization of the triplet carbene [123] were obtained. 

Studies have shown that carbene reactivity toward a wide variety of substrates is dramatically affected by the nature and multiplicity of the electronic state. - Similarly, the structure, electronic state, thermochemical stability, and reaction kinetics of both singlet and triplet carbenes can be significantly affected by the R-substituents. If R provides steric hindrance, the carbene center can be shielded to slow down inter-molecular reactions (kinetic stabilization). Additionally, bulky and/or geometrically... 

Triplet Carbene Intermolecular Hydrogen Abstraction Reactions 434... 

This key paper was followed by a flurry of activity in this area, spanning several years." " "" A variety of workers reported attempts to deconvolute the temperature dependence of carbene singlet/triplet equilibria and relative reactivities from the influence of solid matrices. Invariably, in low-temperature solids, H-abstraction reactions were found to predominate over other processes. Somewhat similar results were obtained in studies of the temperature and phase dependency of the selectivity of C-H insertion reactions in alkanes. While, for example, primary versus tertiary C-H abstraction became increasingly selective as the temperature was lowered in solution, the reactions became dramatically less selective in the solid phase as temperatures were lowered further. Similar work of Tomioka and co-workers explored variations of OH (singlet reaction) versus C-H (triplet reaction) carbene insertions with alcohols as a function of temperature and medium. Numerous attempts were made in these reports to explain the results based on increases in triplet carbene population... 

More recently, evidence has been reported that triplet carbenes can abstract H from H2 via QMT. It was found that warming 38, 39, and 40 in Ar matrices doped with —2% H2 to 30 K caused disappearance of the IR spectra of the carbenes, and... 

On the contrary. Chapman and McMahon found that H-transfer in o-tolylcar-bene can be directly observed at very low temperatures, through several different spectroscopic methods. Irradiation of Ar matrix isolated diazo compound 50 at 4.2 to 10 K gave triplet carbene 51, which could be characterized by EPR, IR, and UV/VIS spectroscopy. The various spectra of 51 slowly decayed at temperatures as low as 4.2 K (tin ca. 64 h), and o-xylylene (52) could be observed to grow correspondingly... 

The related [1,2]-H shift in the isomeric triplet 1-phenylethylidene (53) was also investigated. The triplet carbene, generated from irradiation of the corresponding diazo compound, was characterized in low temperature inert matrices by EPR, IR, and UV/VIS spectroscopy. In this case, the carbene was stable in Ar up to the temperature limits of the matrix (36 K). Irradiation, however, readily converted the carbene to styrene. 

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