Isotope effects in photochemistry: Application to chromatic orthogonality

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ol070820h

Equation Presented The main challenge in developing new wavelength-specific photolabile protecting groups is the rigorous control of the photolysis rate. This rate is controlled by two factors: the chromophore absorbance and the reaction quantum yield. Fine-tuning the properties by changing substituents or structural features is difficult, because both factors are independently affected. By the use of the kinetic isotope effect, we could tune the quantum yield without altering the absorbance, and hence control the overall reaction rate. We exemplified this approach with chromatically orthogonally protected diesters.

Full text of DOI:10.1021/ol070820h

ORGANIC
LETTERS
2007
Vol. 9, No. 14
2649-2651
Isotope Effects in Photochemistry:
Application to Chromatic Orthogonality
Aure´lien Blanc and Christian G. Bochet*
Department of Chemistry, UniVersity of Fribourg, Chemin du Muse´e 9,
CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
christian.bochet@unifr.ch
Received April 6, 2007
ABSTRACT
The main challenge in developing new wavelength-specific photolabile protecting groups is the rigorous control of the photolysis rate. This
rate is controlled by two factors: the chromophore absorbance and the reaction quantum yield. Fine-tuning the properties by changing
substituents or structural features is difficult, because both factors are independently affected. By the use of the kinetic isotope effect, we
could tune the quantum yield without altering the absorbance, and hence control the overall reaction rate. We exemplified this approach with
chromatically orthogonally protected diesters.
Orthogonality is the possibility of causing certain functional
groups to react under a defined set of conditions without
touching others.1 In the specific case of photochemical
reactions, we defined chromatic orthogonality as the pos-
sibility of transforming photochemically a specific chro-
mophore at a specific wavelength, without affecting other
photosensitive moieties.2
We were able to implement this strategy in the area of
photolabile protecting groups3 by exploiting the fact that
different chromophores are excited at different energies.4
Recently our own methodology was successfully applied to
photolithography5 and solid-phase peptide synthesis.6 How-
ever, very limited success was initially obtained when
different groups from the same structural family (e.g.,
o-nitrobenzyl alcohol derivatives) were used.7 What makes
it difficult to fine-tune the relative photochemical reaction
rates of two chromophores8 is that they depend on the
chromophore’s absorbances and the reaction quantum yield.
Both parameters are influenced by substituent effects,
frequently in an unpredictable way, and sometimes in
opposite directions. Recently, a very interesting structure-
reactivity relationship was identified on a limited number
of substrates.9 However, until more knowledge is collected
on the interconnection between both parameters, we decided
to tackle the problem using a different approach. We
considered a photochemical reaction with a low quantum
(1) (a) Merrifield, R. B.; Barany, G.; Cosand, W. L.; Engelhard, M.;
Mojsov, S. Pept.: Proc. Am. Pept. Symp. 5th 1977, 488. (b) Schelhaas, M.;
Waldmann, H. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 1996, 35, 2056.
(2) Bochet, C. G. Synlett 2004, 2268.
(5) del Campo, A.; Boss, D.; Spiess, H. W.; Jonas, U. Angew. Chem.,
Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 4707.
(6) Kessler, M.; Glatthar, R.; Giese, B.; Bochet, C. G. Org. Lett. 2003,
5, 1179.
(7) Bochet, C. G. Tetrahedron Lett. 2000, 41, 6341.
(8) By reaction rate, we imply the net observed rate at constant irradiation
time, and not the rate of decay of an excited state.
(9) Katritzky, A. R.; Xu, Y. J.; Vakulenko, A. V.; Wilcox, A. L.; Bley,
K. R. J. Org. Chem. 2003, 68, 9100.
(3) For reviews see: (a) Amit, B.; Zehavi, U.; Patchornik, A. Isr. J. Chem.
1974, 12, 103. (b) Pillai, V. N. R. Synthesis 1980, 1. (c) Pillai, V. N. R.
Org. Photochem. 1987, 9, 225. (d) Bochet, C. G. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin
Trans. 1 2002, 125. (e) Pelliccioli, A. P.; Wirz, J. Photochem. Photobiol.
Sci. 2002, 1, 441. (f) Falvey, D. E.; Sundararajan, C. Photochem. Photobiol.
Sci. 2004, 3, 831.
(4) (a) Bochet, C. G. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2001, 40, 2071. (b) Blanc,
A.; Bochet, C. G. J. Org. Chem. 2002, 67, 5567.
10.1021/ol070820h CCC: $37.00
© 2007 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 06/08/2007

yield as a pre-equilibrium between the reactant and its excited
state, fluorescence and/or nonradiative relaxation being the
unproductive back-reaction. Hence, any event slowing down
an irreversible subsequent process will de facto reduce the
reaction quantum yield by favoring the back reaction (eq
1). This was experimentally achieved by exploiting the H/D
kinetic isotope effect (KIE). On substrates from the o-
nitrobenzyl family,10,11 rate deceleration factors up to 8 were
reached (Scheme 1).12 In this work, we report on the
1d, and 1i, followed by DCC-mediated esterification with
alcohols 1a,b,e-h. The yields were routinely higher than
70% (Table 2).
Table 2. Preparation of Photolabile Diesters
Scheme 1. Group Differentiation Based on the KIE
application of this isotope effect to reach full chromatic
orthogonality on bifunctional substrates.
Alcohols 1b, 1d, and 1f were deuterated at the benzylic
position by reduction of the corresponding acid chlorides
(prepared in situ from the acid) or ketones with sodium
borodeuteride in high yields (Table 1). It was important to
Table 1. Deuterated and Hydrogenated Photolabile Alcohols
a A: “Western” terminus. B: “Eastern” terminus.
alcohol
R1
R2
X1
X2
yield (%)
1aa
1b
1ca
1d
1e
H
H
OMe
OMe
H
H
H
H
H
H
OMe
OMe
Cl
Cl
Ph
Ph
H
D
H
D
H
D
H
D
H
D
H
D
H
D
H
D
H
94
We were interested in the possibility of a real chromatic
orthogonality, i.e., the deprotection of either terminus by
choosing the appropriate wavelength (Figure 1; the diesters
spectra are superimposable with the sum of the corresponding
alcohols). To check this, we exposed the diesters 3a-h to
monochromatic light at 254 and 419 nm. Indeed, on the basis
of previous results,7 we know the rate of photolysis of
hydrogenated protecting groups at these two wavelengths and
that intermolecular energy transfer between two o-nitrobenzyl
alcohol derivatives is minimal or does not exist. The results
are summarized in Table 3.
93
79
65
83
71
95
1f
1gb
1hb
1i
-OCH2O-
Me
a Commercially available. b Obtained from alcohols 1e and 1f via Suzuki
palladium cross coupling with phenylboronic acid.
avoid protic solvents and moisture during the sequence to
ensure high isotopic purity.
The diesters 3a-h were then prepared by first opening
glutaric anhydride with 1 equiv of one of the alcohols 1c,
As expected, the photolysis of the diesters 3b,d,g at 419
nm gave predominantly the monoester with deprotection at
the nondeuterated site (entries 2, 5, and 10), the KIE acting
as a protection against photolysis, in contrast with protic
diesters 3a,c where no or poor selectivity was observed
(entries 1 and 4). Knowing that the KIE was significantly
reduced at shorter wavelength,12 we then examined the
(10) (a) Barltrop, J. A.; Plant, P. J.; Schofield, P. J. Chem. Soc., Chem.
Commun. 1966, 822. (b) Patchornik, A.; Amit, B.; Woodward, R. B. J.
Am. Chem. Soc. 1970, 92, 6333. (c) Cameron, J. F.; Frechet, J. M. J. J.
Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113, 4303. (d) Holmes, C. P.; Solas, D. W.;
Kiangsoontra, B. PCT Int Appl. 9410128, 1994. (e) Pirrung, M. C.; Lee,
Y. R.; Park, K.; Springer, J. B. J. Org. Chem. 1999, 64, 5042. (f) Blanc,
A.; Bochet, C. G. J. Org. Chem. 2003, 68, 1138. (g) Specht, A.; Goeldner,
M. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 2008. (h) Gaplovsky, M.; Il’ichev, Y.
V.; Kamdzhilov, Y.; Kombarova, S. V.; Mac, M.; Schwoerer, M. A.; Wirz,
J. Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 2005, 4, 33. (i) Lage Robles, J.; Bochet, C.
G. Org. Lett. 2005, 7, 3545.
(11) For recent mechanistic studies see: (a) Corrie, J. E. T.; Barth, A.;
Munasinghe, V. R. N.; Trentham, D. R.; Hutter, M. C. J. Am. Chem. Soc.
2003, 125, 8546. (b) Il’ichev, Y. V. J. Phys. Chem. A 2003, 107, 10159.
(c) Il’ichev, Y. V.; Schwoerer, M. A.; Wirz, J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004,
126, 4581.
(12) Blanc, A.; Bochet, C. G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 7174.
2650
Org. Lett., Vol. 9, No. 14, 2007

Scheme 2. Chromatic Orthogonality
Figure 1. UV-vis spectra of photolabile groups in acetonitrile.
(negative control gave lower selectivity, entry 7), whereas
irradiation at 254 nm gave 4 with 61% and 13% of the other
product. Further photolysis at the complementary wave-
lengths converted both 4 and 5 into glutaric diester 6. This
selectivity can be explained as follows: the 3,4-dimethoxy-
6-nitrobenzyl group is known to yield products quite ef-
ficiently despite its very low quantum yield (Φ ) 0.0013)13
because of its significant absorbance above 350 nm (Figure
1), whereas the 4-phenyl-6-nitrobenzyl group is highly
reactive at 254 nm by both high quantum yield and
absorbance.7 A small reduction of Φ (kH/kD ) 3.6 at 254
nm)12 has no major impact on its relative rate with respect
to the 3,4-dimethoxy-6-nitrobenzyl group (entries 8 and 9).
In conclusion, we were able to individually control the
photolysis of two photolabile protecting groups by using
monochromatic light. The two groups belong to the same
family of chromophores, a feature that has precluded a real
reactivity difference in the past. By exploiting the slower
reactivity of the deuterated compounds, we could bring
selectivity into the synthetically relevant range. The com-
bination of a fine-tuning of these protecting groups and the
currently established chromatic orthogonality to provide
several orthogonal dimensions is currently underway.
photolysis results at 254 nm, an energy where we would
expect little isotopic protection. Indeed, the optimization of
spectroscopic (substituents) and kinetic parameters (H vs D)
in the same direction should lead to the selectivity at only
one wavelength. This was the case, the photolysis at high
energy giving mainly a statistical deprotection of variously
deprotected compounds (entries 3, 6, and 11). However, by
carefully choosing a protecting group pair, such as in 3h
(entries 12 and 13), chromatic orthogonality was found
(Scheme 2). Irradiation at 419 nm cleanly converted 3h into
5 after TMSCHN2 treatment with a yield of 69% and only
8% of the product of deprotection at the unwanted site
Table 3. Photolysis of Diesters with Monochromatic Light
yield (%)
entry
diester
λ (nm)
time (h)
Aa
Ba
Ca
Da
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
3a
3b
3b
3c
3d
3d
3e
3e
3f
3g
3g
3h
3h
419
419
254
419
419
254
419
254
254
419
254
419
254
48
48
1
48
48
1
24
1
1
10
1
40
1
37
70
30
55
85
25
41
5
15
5
28
12
2
22
20
71
78
4
33
8
17
5
15
17
25
28
13
33
23
13
10
14
29
17
20
Acknowledgment. The financial support of the Swiss
National Science Foundation (grant 620-066063) is gratefully
acknowledged.
20
16
11
10
5
27
6
6
2
Supporting Information Available: Selected experi-
mental procedures and spectral data. This material is available
free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
77
24
69
13
23
8
61
OL070820H
a A: Photolysis at the western terminus. B: Photolysis at the eastern
terminus. C: Photolysis at both termini. D: Unreacted starting material.
Yields measured spectroscopically after esterification with TMSCHN2.
(13) (a) Reichmanis, E.; Gooden, R.; Wilkins, C. W., Jr.; Schonhorn,
H. J. Polym. Sci., Polym. Chem. Ed. 1983, 21, 1075. (b) Reichmanis, E.;
Smith, B. C.; Gooden, R. J. Polym. Sci., Polym. Chem. Ed. 1985, 23, 1.
Org. Lett., Vol. 9, No. 14, 2007
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