Becker Y, Roth S, Scheurer M, Jakob A, Gacek DA, Walla PJ, Dreuw A, Wachtveitl J, Heckel A. Selective Modification for Red-Shifted Excitability: A Small Change in Structure, a Huge Change in Photochemistry.
Chemistry 2021;
27:2212-2218. [PMID:
32955154 PMCID:
PMC7898321 DOI:
10.1002/chem.202003672]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2020] [Revised: 09/18/2020] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
We developed three bathochromic, green-light activatable, photolabile protecting groups based on a nitrodibenzofuran (NDBF) core with D-π-A push-pull structures. Variation of donor substituents (D) at the favored ring position enabled us to observe their impact on the photolysis quantum yields. Comparing our new azetidinyl-NDBF (Az-NDBF) photolabile protecting group with our earlier published DMA-NDBF, we obtained insight into its excitation-specific photochemistry. While the "two-photon-only" cage DMA-NDBF was inert against one-photon excitation (1PE) in the visible spectral range, we were able to efficiently release glutamic acid from azetidinyl-NDBF with irradiation at 420 and 530 nm. Thus, a minimal change (a cyclization adding only one carbon atom) resulted in a drastically changed photochemical behavior, which enables photolysis in the green part of the spectrum.
Collapse