Photoinduced Electron Transfer Double Fragmentation: An Oxygen-Mediated Radical Chain Process in the Cofragmentation of Aminopinacol Donors with Organic Halides

We reprot an investigation in which excited states of amino pinacols 1-3 are reacted with the halides CCl{sub 4}, benzyl bromide, and p-cyanobenzyl bromide. Interesting results from this study include the finding that low-to-moderate quantum efficiencies for reaction are observed when the reactions are carried out under degassed conditions, indicating that the halide radical anions must survive long enough within the initial ion pair formed in the quenching step to undergo considerable return electron transfer. More strikingly we find that for certain pinacol-halide combinations reaction in aerared solutions leads to much higher efficiencies, which can be attributed to a chain reaction involving oxygen capture of a primary radical product. 25 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.