Competitive occurrence of homolytic N-O and heterolytic C-O bond cleavage in excited-state 1-(arylmethyloxy)-2-pyridones
The irradiation at 340 nm of the title compounds having 9-anthryl and pyren-1-yl groups in methanol was found to give the heterolytic C-O bond cleavage products: 1-hydroxy-2-pyridone and aryl-substituted dimethyl ether (which predominate for the reaction of the former title compound) in addition to 2-pyridone, aryl-substituted methanol and aryl-substituted formaldehyde derived from the homolysis of the N-O bond (which mainly occurs in the photolysis of the latter title compound). It was also found that substitution of the methyl group for hydrogen at the 6-position of the pyridone skeleton in 1-(9-anthrylmethyloxy)-2-pyridone decreases the relative composition of the arylsubstituted dimethyl ether to some extent. These substituent effects on the product compositions were explained in terms of stereoelectronic effects on a charge transfer-type interaction between the aromatic and pyridone rings in the singlet excited state. Analyses of the ground-state conformation for the title compounds by MM2 calculations and 1H NMR spectroscopy, as well as of their singlet excited-state behaviour, substantiated the existence of a non-emissive intramolecular exciplex intermediate which plays a key role in inducing the C-O bond heterolysis.