Substituent effects, Arrhenius activation parameters, and rate constants for the photo–Claisen rearrangement of allyl aryl ethers

Abstract

The temperature-dependence of fluorescence quantum yields in both methanol and methylcyclohexane has been used to obtain the rate constants of reaction for the activated process that converts the singlet excited state S1 of a set of ring-substituted aryl allyl ethers to an intermediate radical pair in the photo–Claisen rearrangement. These rate constants are correlated with the O–H bond dissociation energy of the corresponding ring-substituted phenols; that is, electron-donating groups (CH3, OCH3) accelerate the reaction relative to electron-withdrawing groups (CF3, CN). The rate constants obtained span two orders of magnitude, from 5.4 × 107 s–1 for X = 3–CN to 800 × 107 s–1 for X = 4–OCH3, in methylcylcohexane. Moreover, the rate constants are similar in the two solvents, methanol and methcyclohexane, indicating that radical pairs, not ion pairs, are the reactive intermediates, as expected on the basis of previous mechanistic proposals for the photo–Claisen rearrangement. Finally, the rate constants obtained by this temperature-dependent method are in good agreement with those previously reported from a method using the corresponding unreactive anisoles as a model.Key words: allyl aryl ethers, photo–Claisen rearrangement, substituent effects, activation parameters.