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Updated: Jun 30, 2025

Photogeneration of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes: Application in Photoinduced Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization
Published on: November 29, 2018
Photo-induced intramolecular dearomative [5 + 4] cycloaddition of arenes for the construction of highly strained
Min Zhu1,2, Yuan-Jun Gao1, Xu-Lun Huang1,2
1New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 345 Lingling Lu, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Medium-sized-ring compounds have been recognized as challenging synthetic targets in organic chemistry. Especially, the difficulty of synthesis will be augmented if an E-olefin moiety is embedded. Recently, photo-induced dearomative cycloaddition reactions that proceed via energy transfer mechanism have witnessed significant developments and provided powerful methods for the organic transformations that are not easily realized under thermal conditions. Herein, we report an intramolecular dearomative [5 + 4] cycloaddition of naphthalene-derived vinylcyclopropanes under visible-light irradiation and a proper triplet photosensitizer. The reaction affords dearomatized polycyclic molecules possessing a nine-membered-ring with an E-olefin moiety in good yields (up to 86%) and stereoselectivity (up to 8.8/1 E/Z). Detailed computational studies reveal the origin behind the favorable formation of the thermodynamically less stable isomers. Diverse derivations of the dearomatized products have also been demonstrated.
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