Origin of a large temperature dependence of regioselectivity observed for [2 + 2] photocycloaddition (Paternò-Büchi reaction) of 1,3-dimethylthymine with benzophenone and its derivatives: conformational property of the intermediary triplet 1,4-diradicals.

[reaction: see text] The [2 + 2] photochemical additions of 1,3-dimethylthymine (DMT) with benzophenone and its 4,4'-substituted derivatives (BPs), difluoro, di-tert-butyl, and dimethoxy benzophenones, have been investigated at a temperature range from -40 to 70 degrees C. The photochemical reactions, which are cycloaddition of the 5-6 double bond of DMT with the carbonyl group of BPs, the so-called the Paternò-Büchi (PB) reaction, reveal largely temperature-dependent regioselectivity. The chemical yields of one series of regioisomers, 2, decrease with the increase of the reaction temperature, but those of another regioisomer series, 3, increase, and thus the ratio of 2/3 is strongly dependent on the temperature (2/3 = ca. 70:30 to 30:70). The temperature dependence of the regioselectivity yields two linear functions in the corresponding Eyring diagrams. The Eyring plot with changed slopes is clearly indicative of the change for the selectivity-determining step in the PB reaction, in which the triplet 1,4-diradicals play a crucial role. Computational studies reveal the conformational equilibrium structures of the triplet 1,4-diradicals, energy barriers between the conformers, and the conjectural equilibrium constants from relative potential energies of the stable conformers. A proposed mechanism can reasonably explain the temperature-dependent regioselectivity and chemical yields of two regioisomers varying with the reaction temperature.