1,5-Sigmatropic shifts of bromine over a cyclopentadiene ring

Photoinduced Skeletal Rearrangement of Diarylethenes: Photorelease of Lewis Acid and Synthetic Applications

The skeletal photorearrangement including 6π-electrocyclization induced by UV light of ortho-halogen-substituted diarylethenes has been studied. It has been found that the reaction pathways leading to bi- or tricyclic frameworks depend on the kind of halogen substituent and solvent. Photocyclization with halogen abstraction leads to bicyclic fused aromatics, while the tricyclic frameworks are formed due to the tandem 6π-electrocyclization/sigmatropic shift reaction. THF is preferred as the solvent in the former process and chloroform in the latter reaction. It was found for the first time that, owing to the ability of this series of diarylethenes to undergo skeletal photorearrangement with the release of the bromide cation, they can be used both as brominating agents and as Lewis acids for catalyzing electrophilic reactions.

Debromination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers by nanoscale zerovalent iron: pathways, kinetics, and reactivity

The debromination of selected polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) by nanoscale zerovalent iron particles (nZVI) was studied to investigate the degradation pathways and the reaction kinetics of the PBDEs. The primary PBDE investigated was 2,3,4-tribromodiphenyl ether (BDE 21) to assess degradation pathways. nZVI could effectively debrominate the selected PBDEs into lower brominated compounds and diphenyl ether, a completely debrominated form of PBDEs. The susceptibility of the meta-bromine by nZVI was observed from the debromination tests for PBDEs with single-flanked (2,3-diBDE and 3,4-diBDE) and unflanked (three mono-BDEs) bromines. The stepwise debromination from n-bromo- to (n-1)-bromodiphenyl ether was observed as the dominant reaction process, although simultaneous multistep debromination seemed to be plausible for di-BDEs having two bromines adjacent on the same phenyl ring. The reaction rate constants were estimated by assuming the reaction between PBDEs and nZVI was a pseudo-first-order reaction and the rates decreased with fewer bromine substituents. The reaction rate constants were correlated with the heat of formation and the energy of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the corresponding compounds, and these appear to be useful descriptors of relative reaction rates among PBDE homologue groups.

Facile 1,3- and 1,5-Chlorine Migration

High-level ab initio molecular orbital calculations, using the G2(MP2,SVP) theory (and semiempirical methods) have been used to examine several 1,3- and 1,5-chlorine migrations. It is found that the interaction of chlorine lone pair electrons with a low-lying LUMO accelerates the Cl shift dramatically (lone pair-LUMO-mediated pericyclic reaction). The activation barriers for the 1,3-migration in chloro oxo ketene 1 (Cl(C=O)CH=C=O) and the 1,5-migration in (2-(chlorocarbonyl)vinyl)ketene 2 (Cl(C=O)CH=CHCH=C=O) are only 53 and 61 kJ mol(-)(1), respectively, compared to the 216 and 173 kJ mol(-)(1) barriers for the corresponding unassisted 1,3- and 1,5-sigmatropic shifts of Cl in 3-chloro-1-propene and 5-chloro-1,3-pentadiene. The transition structures for 1 and 2 reveal that migration of the chlorine atoms takes place in the molecular planes. The 1,5-chlorine shift in 6-chlorocyclohexa-2,4-dienone (3) has a significantly higher barrier due to a lack of appropriate orbital interaction. The related 1,3-shift in the (chlorocarbonyl)imine-alpha-chloro isocyanate system is also dramatically accelerated compared with conventional pericyclic 1,3-Cl migration.