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Photooxygenation of flavonoids leads to the release of carbon monoxide (CO). Our structure-photoreactivity study, employing several structurally different flavonoids, including their 13 C-labeled analogs, revealed that CO can be produced via two completely orthogonal pathways, depending on their hydroxy group substitution pattern and the reaction conditions. While photooxygenation of the enol 3-OH group has previously been established as the CO liberation channel, we show that the catechol-type hydroxy groups of ring B can predominantly participate in photodecarbonylation.

The effect of ring size on the photo-Favorskii induced ring-contraction reaction of the hydroxybenzocycloalkanonyl acetate and mesylate esters (7a-d, 8a-c) has provided new insight into the mechanism of the rearrangement. By monotonically decreasing the ring size in these cyclic derivatives, the increasing ring strain imposed on the formation of the elusive bicyclic spirocyclopropanone 20 results in a divergence away from rearrangement and toward solvolysis. Cycloalkanones of seven or eight carbons undergo a highly efficient photo-Favorskii rearrangement with ring contraction paralleling the photochemistry of p-hydroxyphenacyl esters. In contrast, the five-carbon ring does not rearrange but is diverted to the photosolvolysis channel avoiding the increased strain energy that would accompany the formation of the spirobicyclic ketone, the "Favorskii intermediate 20". The six-carbon analogue demonstrates the bifurcation in reaction channels, yielding a solvent-sensitive mixture of both. Employing a combination of time-resolved absorption measurements, quantum yield determinations, isotopic labeling, and solvent variation studies coupled with theoretical treatment, a more comprehensive mechanistic description of the rearrangement has emerged.

A 2-hydroxyphenacyl moiety absorbing below 370 nm is proposed as a new photoremovable protecting group for carboxylates and sulfonates. Laser flash photolysis and steady-state sensitization studies show that the leaving group is released from a short-lived triplet state. In addition, DFT-based quantum chemical calculations were performed to determine the key reaction steps. We found that triplet excited state intramolecular proton transfer represents a major deactivation channel. Minor productive pathways involving the triplet anion and quinoid triplet enol intermediates have also been identified.

Various synthetically readily accessible S-phenacyl xanthates are shown to undergo photoinitiated homolytic scission of the C-S bond in the primary step. The resultant fragments, phenacyl and xanthic acid radicals, recombine to form symmetrical 1,4-diketones and xanthogen disulfides, respectively, in high to moderate chemical yields in chemically inert solvents. They can also be efficiently trapped by a hydrogen-atom-donating solvent to give acetophenone and xanthic acid derivatives. The latter compound is in situ thermally converted to the corresponding alcohol in high chemical yields. S-Phenacyl xanthates could thus be utilized as synthetic precursors to the above-mentioned compounds or as photoremovable protecting groups for alcohols in which the xanthate moiety represents a photolabile linker. The photochemically released phenacyl radical fragments efficiently but reversibly add to the thiocarbonyl group of the parent xanthate molecule. The kinetics of this degenerative reversible addition-fragmentation transfer (RAFT)/macromolecular design via the interchange of xanthates (MADIX) mechanism was studied using laser flash photolysis (LFP) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The rate constants of the RAFT addition step, k(add) ∼ 7 × 10(8) M(-1) s(-1), and phenacyl radical addition to a double bond of 1,1-diphenylethylene, k(add) ∼ 10(8) M(-1) s(-1), in acetonitrile were experimentally determined by LFP. In addition, photoinitiation of the methyl methacrylate polymerization by S-phenacyl xanthate is demonstrated. The polydispersity index of the resulting poly(methyl methacrylate) was found to be ∼1.4. We conclude that S-phenacyl xanthates can serve simultaneously as photoinitiators as well as RAFT/MADIX agents in polymerization reactions.

The 4-acetyl-2-nitrobenzyl moiety, substituted in both benzylic and phenacyl positions with leaving groups, has been proposed as a monochromophoric photocleavable linker. The attached groups can be disconnected selectively and orthogonally upon irradiation.