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Journal of the American Chemical Society
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Figure 2: (A) Determination of bimolecular rate constant (kq) for quenching of xanthone and thioxanthone triplet states by 1 using
laser flash photolysis (λex=355 nm, 7 ns pulse width). Inverse xanthone and thioxanthone triplet lifetimes determined from triplet ab-
sorption decay traces monitored at 620 nm vs. varying concentration of 1 in argon saturated MeCN solutions. (B) Transient absorp-
tion spectrum of 1 monitored at the end of the laser pulse (λex=308 nm, 20 ns pulse width) of argon saturated MeCN solutions. Inset:
decay trace monitored at 350 nm. (C) Determination of kq of 31* by alkenes 2a-2d using LFP (λex=308 nm, 20 ns pulse width). Inverse
triplet lifetime of 1 determined from triplet absorption decay traces monitored at 350 nm vs. varying concentration of 2 in argon satu-
rated MeCN solutions.
Based on this observation, optimized reaction conditions
were developed (Table 2) to probe the reactivity of 1 with
various alkenes 2a-d. Irradiation was carried out at ~420
nm (Rayonet reactor) using thioxanthone as sensitizer.
Inspection of Table 2 reveals that [2+2]-photo-adducts 3
and 4 were observed as the major/isolated products up-
on employing mono and di-substituted alkenes 2a-2b
and 2e. However, photo-ene product 5 was observed as
the major product with tri- and tetrasubstituted 2c-2d. It
was interesting to observe that the chemoselectivity is
based on the substitution pattern on the alkene em-
ployed. To further understand the chemoselectivity lead-
ing to photo-ene reaction, we evaluated the photoreac-
tivity of 1 with tetra-substituted alkene 2d under varying
reaction conditions. While the photo-ene product 5d was
observed under both direct and sensitized irradiations,
the reaction efficiency and the product yield was evident-
ly much higher under triplet sensitized irradiation condi-
tions (Table 1; compare entries 2 and 4). Based on this
observation, we believe that 1 reacts from the triplet ex-
cited state and triplet sensitizer thioxanthone accelerates
the reaction by populating the triplet states of 1 through
energy transfer. Thus in the absence of sensitizer, the
reaction is less efficient due to poor intersystem crossing
rates of 1.20
Based on our previous investigations on atropselective
intramolecular photoreactions, we believed that the axial
chirality would influence the stereochemical outcome of
the reaction.17 To establish the role of axial chirality, we
performed photoreactions on enantiopure atropisomeric
citraconicimide 1 with monosubstituted alkene 2a and
analyzed the stereoselectivity in the product. Since al-
kene 2a is unsymmetric, two regioisomeric products 3a
and 4a were isolated. The atropselectivity in the products
were >97% suggesting that the axial chirality played a
critical role by facially biasing the approach of the alkene
leading to excellent stereoselectivity in the products.
Inspection of the stereoselectivity and the crystal struc-
ture of photo-ene 5d shows that the enantiomer (M)-1
gave (M,S)-5d, while the opposite enantiomer (P)-1 gave
the enantiomeric (P,R)-5d with atropselectivity >99%.26
Irrespective of chemoselectivity in the reaction, the enan-
tiomeric excess (atropselectivity) in the products is de-
termined by the axial chirality of the citraconicimide 1.
To rationalize the above observations and to under-
stand the mechanistic details for this chemoselectivity,
we performed detailed photophysical experiments. As
we have previously shown that maleimides feature only
weak luminescence both at room temperature and at 77
K,20 we turned to laser flash photolysis (LFP; λex = 355
nm, 7 ns pulse width) to understand the excited state
reactivity of 1 with alkenes 2. As the reaction occurred
efficiently through triplet sensitization under both UV and
visible light, we determined the bimolecular quenching
rate constant kq (Figure 2A) of excited sensitizers xan-
thone (X) and thioxanthone (TX) triplet states by 1. The
excited sensitizers were efficiently quenched by 1 (for
Inspection of Table 2 shows that the alkene substitu-
tion has a profound effect on the reaction outcome. Pho-
toreaction of 1 (thioxanthone sensitization) with mono-
substituted alkene 2a afforded the 1,2-substituted cyclo-
butane 3a and 1,3-substituted cyclobutane 4a in 41%
and 23% isolated yields, respectively. We confirmed
these products unambiguously from the single crystal
XRD of the major and minor regioisomers 3b and 4b
respectively. The absolute configurations were deter-
mined to be (P,R,R)-3b, (M,S,S)-3b and (P,S,R)-4b,
(M,R,S) 4b.26 On the other hand, under identical condi-
tions, photoreaction of 1 with tri-substituted alkene 2c
and tetra-substituted alkene 2d gave the respective pho-
to-ene product 5c (45% isolated yield) and 5d respec-
tively (41% isolated yield). When the reaction was car-
X
xanthone kq = 6.6±0.1 x 109 M-1s-1 and for thioxanthone
kqTX = 4.6±0.1 x 109 M-1s-1). The high kq indicated that the
energy of the triplet state of 1 is below that of thioxan-
thone (~63 kcal/mol). Direct excitation of 1 with laser
pulses at 308 nm (20 ns pulse width) generated a weak
transient absorption spectrum which decayed with a life-
time of 8.7 µs (Figure 2B). The transient signal was as-
signed to the triplet state of 1 based on the high rate
constant of quenching by molecular oxygen (~2 × 109 M-
1s-1) and similarities with a previously reported triplet
spectrum of maleimides.27 This enabled us to determine
o
ried out at -78 C, the isolated yield of the photo-ene
adduct 5d increased to 83%. Unambiguous characteriza-
tion of 5d was established through single crystal XRD.
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