Stereoselective Ring Opening of Electronically Excited Cyclohexa‐2, 4‐dienones: Cause and effect

Abstract

Abstract The two conformers of a cyclohexa‐2, 4‐dienone with different substituents at C(6) on irradiation are believed to undergo ring opening stereospecifically affording a mixture of two configurationally isomeric diene‐ketenes (and descendents thereof)‐ Exceptions are generally found for those dienones with one C and one O substituent or even with two C substituents, if one of them carries a polar group at a site able to interact through space with the ring CO group. In these cases, only one of the two anticipated diene‐ketenes (and descendents thereof) is produced. A thorough investigation of the photochemistry of a series of structurally different cyclohexa‐2, 4‐dienones on analytical as well as on preparative scale extends our mechanistic knowledge of the various routes from diene‐ketenes into a variety of compound classes. Novel compound classes accessible to diene‐ketenes are seven‐membered carbocycles (by intramolecular aldolization of the zwitterion of appropriately substituted, transiently formed diene‐( N, O )‐ketene acetals) and β‐lactams (by Staudinger reaction).