ABSTRACT
The skeletal photorearrangement including 6π-electrocyclization induced by UV light of ortho-halogen-substituted diarylethenes has been studied. It has been found that the reaction pathways leading to bi- or tricyclic frameworks depend on the kind of halogen substituent and solvent. Photocyclization with halogen abstraction leads to bicyclic fused aromatics, while the tricyclic frameworks are formed due to the tandem 6π-electrocyclization/sigmatropic shift reaction. THF is preferred as the solvent in the former process and chloroform in the latter reaction. It was found for the first time that, owing to the ability of this series of diarylethenes to undergo skeletal photorearrangement with the release of the bromide cation, they can be used both as brominating agents and as Lewis acids for catalyzing electrophilic reactions.
Subject(s)
Lewis Acids , Cations , SolventsABSTRACT
In recent years, great synthetic potential of the photorearrangement of diarylethenes leading to naphthalene derivatives via a cascade process of photocyclization/[1,n]-H shift/cycloreversion has been demonstrated. In this work, first a multifaceted study of the influence of various factors on the efficiency of the photorearrangement of diarylethenes of furanone series containing benzene and oxazole derivatives as aryl residues has been carried out. The efficiency of this phototransformation (quantum yields) and the effect of methoxy substituents in the phenyl moiety have been studied. Despite the multistage process, the quantum yields of the photorearrangement are rather high (0.34-0.49). It has been found that the efficiency of photocyclization of diarylethenes increases with the introduction of electron-donating methoxy groups in the phenyl moiety. Using the DFT calculations, we have been able to estimate in the photoinduced isomer the distance between hydrogen atom and carbon atom to which it migrates in the result of the sigmatropic shift. For all studied diarylethenes, this value was 2.67-2.73 Å, which is less than the sum of van der Waals radii of carbon and hydrogen atoms (2.9 Å).
