Direct Observation of Aminyl Radical Intermediate during Single-Crystal to Single-Crystal Photoinduced Orton Rearrangement

Structure of 2-chloro-N-(p-tol-yl)propanamide

Two independent samples of the title compound, alternatively 2-chloro-N-(4-methylphenyl)prop-an-amide, C10H12ClNO, 1, were studied using Cu Kα, 1a, and Mo Kα, 1b, radiation as part of a continuous crystallization study. The mol-ecule crystallizes with disorder in the Cl/terminal methyl positions [occupancies for the major disorder component of 0.783 (2) in 1a and and 0.768 (2) in 1b] and exhibits N-C bond lengths of 1.3448 (19), 1.344 (2) Å, C=O bond lengths of 1.2233 (18) and 1.2245 (19) Å and an acetamide moiety C-N-C-C torsion angle of 179.00 (13), 178.97 (14) ° for 1a and 1b, respectively. In the crystal, chains along the a axis are formed via N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds between acetamide groups, as well as C-H⋯O inter-actions. These chains arrange themselves into parallel running stacks which display weak C-Cl⋯O=C halogen bonding as well as weak C-H⋯π inter-actions.

Chemical x-ray photodiffraction: principles, examples, and perspectives

X-ray photodiffraction (in the chemical literature also referred to as photocrystallography), which is based on the combination of X-ray diffraction methods with samples excited by UV or visible light to solve fundamental photochemical or photophysical issues, has developed in the last couple of decades into a very promising technique for direct observation of photoinduced chemical species in the solid state. The capability of providing direct information on very small perturbations in atomic positions and thus on the minute changes in molecular geometry during (or as a consequence of) photoexcitation appears to be the most important asset of this emerging analytical technique. When combined with other physicochemical methods, X-ray photodiffraction can be a powerful tool for analysis of steady-state photoinduced structures as well as slow or very fast time-dependent phenomena. Despite being a very useful approach, however, due to a number of practical requirements that it places with regard to the system to be studied, at the present stage of developments the technique is not widely and indiscriminately applicable to any photoinduced process. In some particular chemical systems the inherent pitfalls could be practically overcome by practical or theoretical means. In this short chapter, the basic principles of X-ray photodiffraction are briefly summarized, and the prospects of its application to "physical" and "chemical" problems is illustrated with selected examples from recent literature. Some possible future developments and alternative approaches with this and related methods are also presented.