Paul I, Konieczny KA, Chavez R, Shan JR, Houk KN, Garcia-Garibay MA. Cascade Photoreaction in Crystals: A Phase Change Caused by a Dewar Benzene Quantum Chain Triggers a Topochemical [2 + 2] Photodimerization.
J Am Chem Soc 2024;
146. [PMID:
39377489 PMCID:
PMC11487560 DOI:
10.1021/jacs.4c09377]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2024] [Revised: 09/30/2024] [Accepted: 10/01/2024] [Indexed: 10/09/2024]
Abstract
Crystals undergoing tandem reactions where the first transformation enables the second one are rare. Using photoreactive Dewar benzene 3,4,5,6-tetramethyl-1,2-dicarboxylic diacid (DB) as a hydrogen-bonding template for the [2π+2π] photodimerization of trans-4,4'-bipyridyl-ethenes (BPE), we obtained crystals DB-BPE-NT with a DB:BPE = 2:1 stoichiometry with double bonds at a nonreactive distance of 5.957 Å. Exposure to UV light resulted in valence bond isomerization to Hückel benzene 3,4,5,6-tetramethyl-1,2-dicarboxylic acid (HB) by a quantum chain reaction that triggered the sought-after topochemical [2π+2π] photodimerization reaction. Notably, crystals HB:BPE-T with the Hückel benzene isomer and BPE adopted a 2:2 stoichiometry and displayed an efficient topochemically templated photodimerization reaction.
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