NMR Kin etic In vestiga tion s of th e P h otoch em ica l a n d Th er m a l
Rea ction s of a P h otoch r om ic Ch r om en e
Ste´phanie Delbaere,*,† J ean-Claude Micheau,‡ and Gaston Vermeersch†
Laboratoire de Physique et LARMN, UMR CNRS 8009, Faculte´ de Pharmacie, Universite´ de Lille 2,
F-59006 Lille, France, and Laboratoire IMRCP, UMR CNRS 5623, Universite´ Paul Sabatier,
F-31062 Toulouse, France
sdelbaer@pharma.univ-lille2.fr
Received September 2, 2003
The photochromic behavior of 2,2-di(4-fluorophenyl)-6-methoxy-2H-1-chromene has been investi-
gated by 19F NMR spectroscopy. Photocoloration under UV irradiation at low temperature led to
the formation of three interconverting photoisomers including two merocyanines and an unprec-
edented allenyl-phenol isomer. Photobleaching with visible light, which was known to lead to
reversion to the initial closed chromene, was shown to increase allenyl-phenol concentration.
Thermal relaxation of the preirradiated system was also studied at various temperatures. In each
case (UV and visible irradiations, thermal isomerization), the kinetics of each of the four species
was monitored. Numerical analysis of concentration vs time profiles enabled us to unequivocally
establish the global mechanism occurring in each of the experimental conditions and to interpret
the specific reactivity of each photoisomer. It has been shown that, among the 12 possible
isomerization processes, only some paths were active. For the first time, it has been possible to
determine their corresponding thermal activation parameters and photochemical quantum yield
ratios.
In tr od u ction
eral photoisomers impedes the unequivocal extraction of
the photoconversion quantum yields and molar absorp-
tion coefficients.
Photochromic molecules have received great attention
in recent years due to their potential applications in
variable transmission glasses, in high-density optical
storage and switching, and in some attempts to manu-
facture light-driven molecular motors.1-5 However, the
mechanisms used by multi-isomeric photochromic com-
pounds remain unclear. Among photochromic molecules
involving multi-isomeric systems, benzopyrans (also known
as chromenes) are a promising class of compounds.
Becker and Michl first reported them in 1966.6 UV
irradiation of the colorless chromene proceeds through
C-O bond cleavage, producing a distribution of orange
to red isomeric open forms (merocyanines), which are
thought to be thermally and/or photochemically reverted
to the original benzopyran. In the presence of such
complex systems, multiwavelength absorbance vs time
matrixes are not a sufficient source of mechanistic
information7 because spectral overlapping between sev-
Recently, by use of 19F high-resolution NMR spectro-
scopy, we showed that irradiation of the 2,2-di(4-fluo-
rophenyl)-6-methoxy-2H-1-chromene (FC or fluorochro-
mene) generated, besides the two expected open mero-
cyanines (the transoid-cis (TC) and the transoid-trans
(TT) forms), an o-allenyl-p-methoxyphenol (AP).8 This
compound had never been detected by any other method
before, despite numerous investigations on benzo- and
naphthopyran compounds.9-18 We think that it is worth
investigating the kinetic behavior of this photochromic
benzopyran since the involvement of an allenyl-phenol
side product (AP) has recently been demonstrated to be
(7) Metelitsa, A. V.; Micheau, J . C.; Voloshin, N. A.; Voloshina, E.
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* To whom correspondence may be addressed. Fax: 333 2095 9009.
Tel: 333 2096 4023.
(10) Tyer, N. W.; Becker, R. S. J . Am. Chem. Soc. 1970, 92, 1289-
1294.
(11) Kolc, J .; Becker, R. S. Photochem. Photobiol. 1971, 13, 423-
429.
† Universite de Lille 2.
‡ Universite Paul Sabatier.
(1) Bertelson, R. C. In Photochromism; Brown, G. H., Ed.; Wiley:
New York, 1971; pp 45-ff and references therein.
(2) Guglielmetti, R. In Photochromism: Molecules and Systems,
Studies in Organic Chemistry 40; Du¨rr, H., Bouas-Laurent, H. Eds.;
Elsevier: Amsterdam, 1990; Chapters 8 and 23 and references therein.
(3) Van Gemert, B. In Organic Photochromic and Thermochromic
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(16) Ortica, F.; Levi, D.; Brun, P.; Guglielmetti, R.; Mazzucato, U.;
Favaro, G. J . Photochem. Photobiol. A 2001, 139, 133-141.
(17) J ockusch, S.; Turro, N. J .; Blackburn, F. R. J . Phys. Chem. A
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(18) Zhao, W.; Carreira, E. M. J . Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 1582-
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(4) Berkovic, G.; Krongauz, V.; Weiss, V. Chem. Rev. 2000, 100,
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(5) Koumura, N.; Zijlstra, R. W. J .; Van Delden, R. A.; Harada, N.;
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10.1021/jo035279r CCC: $25.00 © 2003 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 10/10/2003
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J . Org. Chem. 2003, 68, 8968-8973