21083-33-0

The 266 nm laser flash photolysis of phtaloyl peroxide (2) in liquid acetonitrile solution at room temperature has been investigated. Upon 266 nm laser irradiation, 2 is effectively photodecarboxylated leading to the formation of o-benzyne (1) and two equivalents of CO2, yet a small fraction of photolyzed 2 follows a different pathway leading to 6-oxocyclohexa-2,4-dienylideneketene (3) and one equivalent of CO2. Compound 3 is kinetically reactive and reacts in the microsecond time scale following a first-order kinetic law. The presence of 1 in the photolysis experiment is confirmed by trapping experiments with methyl 1-methylpyrrole-2-carboxylate (6). The Diels-Alder reaction between 1 and 6 occurs under the selected experimental conditions on a time scale shorter than 100 ms.

We report the absolute photoionization cross section (PICS) of fulvenone and 2-carbonyl cyclohexadienone, two crucial ketene intermediates in lignin pyrolysis, combustion and organic synthesis. Both species were generated in situ by pyrolyzing salicylamide and dectected via imaging photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy. In a deamination reaction, salicylamide loses ammonia yielding 2-carbonyl cyclohexadienone, a ketoketene, which further decarbonylates at higher pyrolysis temperatures to form fulvenone. We recorded the threshold photoelectron spectrum of the ketoketene and assigned the ground state (X+2A′′ ← X1A′) and excited state (?+2A′ ← X1A′) bands with the help of Franck-Condon simulations. Adiabatic ionization energies are 8.35 ± 0.01 and 9.19 ± 0.01 eV. In a minor reaction channel, the ketoketene isomerizes to benzpropiolactone, which decomposes subsequently to benzyne by CO2 loss. Potential energy surface and RRKM rate constant calculations agree with our experimental observations that the decarbonylation to fulvenone outcompetes the decarboxylation to benzyne by almost two orders of magnitude. The absolute PICS of fulvenone at 10.48 eV was determined to be 18.8 ± 3.8 Mb using NH3 as a calibrant. The PICS of 2-carbonyl cyclohexadienone was found to be 21.5 ± 8.6 Mb at 9 eV. Our PICS measument will enable the quantification of reactive ketenes in lignin valorization and combustion processes using photoionization techniques and provide advanced mechanistic and kinetics insights to aid the bottom-up optimization of such processes.

6-Carbonylcyclohexa-2,4-dienone (1) has been generated by flash vacuum thermolysis (FVT) with Ar-matrix isolation of methyl salicylate (7), 2-phenylbenzo-1,3-dioxan-4-one (8), phthalic peranhydride (9), and benzofuran-2,3-dione (11) and also by matrix photolysis of 9, 11, and 2-diazocyclohepta-4,6-dien-1,3-dione (12). In each case, FVT above 600 °C results in decarbonylation of 1 and Wolff rearrangement to fulven-6-one (13) either concertedly or via open-shell singlet 6-oxocyclohexa-2,4-dienylidene (18). Ketenes 1 and 13 were characterized by IR spectroscopy. Photolysis of matrix-isolated 1 at 254 nm also results in the slow formation of 13. The sequential formation of ketenes 1 and 13 from 7 has also been monitored by FVT-mass spectrometry, and 13 has been trapped with MeOH to afford methyl 1,3-cyclopentadiene-1- and -2-carboxylates 15 and 16. FVT of methyl salicylate-1-13C 7a revealed a deep-seated rearrangement of the 13C-labeled 1a to hepta-1,2,4,6-tetraen-1,7-dione (17a) by means of electrocyclic ring opening followed by a facile 1,5-H shift and recyclization prior to CO-elimination and ring contraction to 13C-labeled 13. The rearrangement mechanism is supported by M06-2X/6-311++G(d,p) calculations, which predict feasible barriers for the FVT rearrangements and confirm the observed labeling pattern in the isolated methyl salicylate 7a/7b and methyl cyclopentadienecarboxylates 20 and 21 resulting from trapping of 13 with MeOH.

Photolysis of indan-l,2,3-trion (la), benzo[ft]furan-2,3-dione (lb), and N-methylisatin (1c) in argon matrix either with or without oxygen at 10 K was investigated by IR spectroscopy in combination with DFT calculations. The results indicate that while 1a and 1b gave the products mixture as a result of α-cleavage, followed by decarbonylation, 1c was rather photostable under similar conditions. However, when the irradiation was carried out in argon matrix doped with 20% oxygen, 1c decomposed much more efficiently than that in argon matrix and cyclic diacyl peroxide presumably formed by trapping of initial diradical originating from α-cleavage by molecular oxygen was detected. Similar irradiation of 1b also gave cyclic diacyl peroxide along with photodecarbonylation products, but irradiation of 1a in oxygen-doped matrix produced not only cyclic diacyl peroxide but also products as a result of oxidation of photodecarbonylation product. The present observation reveals that photolysis of ketones in oxygen-doped matrix at low temperature provides useful information concerning the reactivities of ketones toward α-cleavage.

The title ketene 2 has been generated by laser flash photolysis and observed in solution for the first time, using time-resolved infrared spectroscopy. The kinetics of the reactivity of 2 with H2O, MeOH, and Et2NH with relative reactivities of 1.0, 2.0, and 73 have been measured. These are the first direct measurements of the reactivities of a ketene with these different nucleophiles under the same conditions. Ab initio molecular orbital calculations indicate the hydration occurs by in-plane attack of the H2O molecule on the ketenyl carbonyl through a pseudopericyclic transition state with assistance by coordination to the keto-carbonyl.

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