The design of radical clocks to probe the reactivity of the intermediates in arylmethyl ester photochemistry

The photochemistry in methanol of the esters 1–6was examined. These reactions normally proceed through radical pairs that result from homolytic cleavage of the carbon–oxygen bond in the excited singlet state. Each of the esters was designed to probe the intervention and reactivity of the substituted arylmethyl radical by incorporating a potential radical clock at the carbon of the reactive bond. For esters 1–5, the products isolated indicated that the radical clock was not reactive enough to compete with the very rapid alternate processes of the radical pair, namely, electron transfer to form the corresponding ion pair and decarboxylation of the phenylacyloxy radical (k = 4.6 × 109 s−1). Ester 6, which incorporates the extremely rapid fluorenylcyclopropylcarbinyl clock, showed very unusual reactivity. On thermal solvolysis in methanol, 6 rearranged quantitatively to the ester 20. No methyl ethers were detected. In contrast, photolysis of 6 in benzene resulted in an alternate rearrangement to the cyclobutyl ester, 22, resulting from the aryl version of the cyclopropyl-π-methane photochemical rearrangement. No ester cleavage occurred on excitation. A rationale for the latter conversion was based on stereoelectronic arguments provided by a crystal structure of 6. Keywords: photochemistry of arylmethyl esters, radical clocks.