Photolysis of aryl chlorides with aliphatic amines

Photoreduction of chlorothalonil fungicide on plant leaf models

Photodegradation is seldom considered at the surface of vegetation after crop spraying. Chlorothalonil, a broad-spectrum foliar fungicide with a very widespread use worldwide, was considered. To represent the waxy upper layer of leaves, tests were performed within thin paraffin wax films or in n-heptane. Laser flash photolysis together with steady-state irradiation in n-heptane allowed the determination of the photodegradation mechanisms Chlorothalonil ability to produce singlet oxygen was measured; noteworthy its efficiency is close to 100%. Additionally, chlorothalonil photodegradation mainly proceeds through reductive dechlorination. In these hydrophobic media, a radical mechanism was evidenced. Photochemical tests on wax films under simulated solar light show that formulated chlorothalonil is more reactive than pure chlorothalonil. The field-extrapolated half-life of photolysis on vegetation was estimated to 5.3 days. This value was compared to the half-lives of penetration and volatilization available in the literature. It appears that chlorothalonil dissipation from crops is ruled by both photodegradation and penetration. The relative importance of the two paths probably depends on meteorological factors and on physicochemical characteristics of the crop leaf cuticle.

Homolytic vs Heterolytic Paths in the Photochemistry of Haloanilines

The photochemistry of 4-haloanilines and 4-halo-N,N-dimethylanilines has been studied in apolar, polar aprotic, and protic solvents. Photophysical and flash photolysis experiments show that the reaction proceeds in any case from the triplet state. It is rather unreactive in apolar media, the highest value being Phi = 0.05 for the iodoanilines in cyclohexane. Changing the solvent has little effect for iodoanilines and for the poorly reacting bromo analogue, while it leads to a variation of over 2 orders of magnitude in the quantum yield for the chloro and fluoro derivatives. The triplets have been characterized at the UB3LYP/6-31G(d) level of theory, evidencing a deformation and an elongation (except for C-F) of the C-X bond. Homolytic fragmentation is in every case endothermic, but calculations in acetonitrile solution show that heterolytic cleavage of C-Cl and C-Br is exothermic. Experimentally, the occurrence of heterolytic fragmentation has been monitored through selective trapping of the resulting phenyl cation by allyltrimethylsilane. Heterolytic dechlorination occurs efficiently in polar media (e.g., Phi = 0.77 in MeCN), while debromination remains ineffective due to the short lifetime of the triplet. Heterolytic defluorination is efficient only in protic solvents (Phi = 0.48 in MeOH), in accord with calculations showing that in the presence of an ancillary molecule of water fragmentation is exothermic due to the formation of the strong H-F bond. The energy profile for both homo- and heterolytic dissociation paths has been mapped along the reaction coordinates in the gas phase and in acetonitrile. The conditions determining the efficiency and mode of dehalogenation have been defined. This is significant for devising synthetic methods via photogenerated phenyl cations and for rationalizing the photodegradation of halogenated aromatic pollutants and the phototoxic effect of some fluorinated drugs.

Guest dechlorination and covalent capture following photoexcitation of inclusion complexes in water

Photoexcitation of complexes between cyclophane 1 and 1- or 2-chloronaphthalene in aqueous solution leads to rapid dechlorination of the guest, a reaction driven by electron transfer from host to excited guest. The main photoproducts contain a naphthyl group covalently attached to the host framework. The results may lead to new approaches for remediating water contaminated with chlorinated aromatic compounds.

Elimination Reactions of (E)- and (Z)-Benzaldehyde O-Pivaloyloximes. Transition-State Differences for the Syn and Anti Eliminations Forming Nitriles

Elimination reactions of (E)- and (Z)-benzaldehyde O-pivaloyloximes 1 and 2 with DBU in MeCN have been investigated kinetically. The reactions are second order and exhibit substantial values of Hammett rho and k(H)/k(D) values, and an E2 mechanism is evident. The rate of elimination from 2 is approximately 20 000-fold faster than that from 1. For reactions of 1 with DBU in MeCN, a Hammett rho value of 2.4 +/- 0.1, k(H)/k(D) = 2.7 +/- 0.3, DeltaH() = 12.5 +/- 0.2 kcal/mol, and DeltaS() = -31.0 +/- 0.6 eu have been determined. The corresponding values for 2 are rho = 1.4 +/- 0.1, k(H)/k(D) = 7.8 +/- 0.3, DeltaH() = 8.8 +/- 0.1 kcal/mol, and DeltaS() = -23.6 +/- 0.4 eu, respectively. The results indicate that the nitrile-forming anti eliminations from 2 proceed via a more symmetrical transition state with a smaller degree of proton transfer, less negative charge development at the beta-carbon, and greater extent of triple-bond formation than that for the syn elimination.