Three-Component Reactions of Tetracyanobenzene
SCHEME 1
CHART 1
acetonitrile is determined to be in the range of 54.5-68.7%,
depending on the analytical methods (NMR,12 HPLC,13 or
UV-visible spectroscopy14). The alkene cation radical formed
in single electron transfer (SET) with the singlet excited TCNB
(1TCNB*)15 is trapped by the strongly nucleophilic acetylac-
etone enol to give the addition radical A, which on radical pair
combination with the TCNB anion radical (TCNB-•) and
extrusion of a cyanide anion gives product 1. An alternative
mechanism for the formation of 1 as shown in Scheme 3 can
also be envisaged. SET between the enol and 1TCNB* leads to
the enol cation radical, which gives the carbon centered radical
B by deprotonation. Radical addition of B to the alkene affords
the addition radical A, which combines with TCNB-• to give 1
after extrusion of a cyanide anion. In Scheme 3, the mechanism
for the formation of radical A is similar to that proposed in
thermal addition reactions of ꢀ-diketones to alkenes mediated
by the ground state one-electron oxidant ceric ammonium nitrate
(CAN).16,17 The formation of the carbon radical as B by CAN
induced oxidation of the diketone enol followed by deprotona-
tion of the enol cation radical to the solvent18 was proven by
ESR measurement,19 and these radicals tend to dimerize to give
the diketone dimers in the absence of added alkene.20 In the
presence of an alkene, the carbon radical (as B) adds to the
alkene to give an addition radical as A (Schemes 2 and 3).
Further SET from this radical to Ce(IV) leads to a carbocation
that on intramolecular cyclization gives dihydrofuran product.16,17
To examine the two possible mechanisms, we carried out a
control experiment, which showed that irradiation of TCNB with
acetylacetone in MeCN in the absence of an alkene resulted in
no net reactions and the two reactants are not consumed.
However, when the photolysis of TCNB with acetylacetone was
carried out with added biphenyl (BP) as a cosensitizer,21,22 both
TCNB and acetylacetone were found to be consumed steadily
to gave a complicated product mixture. These results suggest
to expand the scope of these reactions to increase their
synthetic value, but also shed new light on mechanistic details
for these photo-multicomponent reactions.
In our previous work on photoreactions of TCNB with a series
of aromatic olefins, we have shown that BET between the alkene
dimer cation radical and TCNB anion radical could not take
place because the latter is a too weak electron donor, and the
reaction takes a pathway of radical pair combination between
the alkene dimer radical and the TCNB anion radical to give a
product of (olefin dimerization-aromatic substitution) (Scheme
1).10 This result implies that aromatic alkenes would be even
better olefin substrates in the photo-NOCAS reactions than
aliphatic olefins whose reactions are often complicated by the
allylic deprotonation side reaction. As a part of our effort in
diversifying the reactant types in PET reactions to explore new
photo-multicomponent reactions, we report here photoreactions
of TCNB with aromatic alkenes in the presence of ꢀ-dicarbonyl
compound as added nucleophile.
Results and Discussion
Photoinduced reactions of TCNB with the alkenes and the
ꢀ-dicarbonyl compounds listed in Chart 1 were investigated.
I. Photoreactions of TCNB with r-Methylstyrene in
the Presence of ꢀ-Dicarbonyl Compounds. Irradiation of
TCNB (0.025 M) with R-methylstyrene (0.05 M) in the presence
of acetylacetone (0.2 M) in MeCN with light of λ > 300 nm
gave products 1 (78%), 2 (5%), and 3 (5%) (Chart 2 and Table
1). Products 2 and 3 are a pair of diastereomers derived from
the olefin dimerization-aromatic substitution reaction.10 Product
1 is a three-component reaction product and is proposed to be
formed by a reaction sequence as shown in Scheme 2.
ꢀ-Diketones have high enol contents in solutions of common
organic solvents.11 For acetylacetone, the enol content in
that, although SET between TCNB* and the diketone enol
1
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