Popis: |
The photocyclization of three structural types of arylethylenes is systematically investigated in order to provide new pathways to regiospecifically substituted and/or partially hydrogenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The scope of the photoformation of acenaphthenes from α-arylolefins, in amine solutions, is discussed: when the double bond is acyclic, only the naphthyl and the pyrenyl derivatives are photoreactive, but when the double bond is in a cycle, all the compounds which lead to thetrans double bond photocyclize. The amine-mediated 1,3-H-shift, discovered with the preceding series, also occurs with 4a,4b-dihydrophenanthrene, formed by irradiation of 1,2-diarylethylenes, and leads to dihydrophenanthrenes. The photocyclization of 2-vinylbiphenyls is stereoselective from the singlet excited state but not from the triplet, where a fast equilibrium between E andZ configurations precedes the adiabatic cyclization. The radical cation of 2-vinylbiphenyls cyclizes to a phenanthrene radical cation which initiates a protic catalysis to the related fluorenes or, in presence of 2,6-di-t-butypyridine or water, leads stoichiometrically to phenanthrenes. |