Mechanistic Approach to the Sensitization Process of Aromatic Ketones in the Isomerization between Norbornadiene and Quadricyclane

Abstract The quantum yields for norbornadiene(N)→quadricyclane(Q) and Q→N isomerization were determined in acetonitrile using several substituted benzophenones (BPs) as triplet sensitizers. For the N→Q isomerization, BPs with electron-donating substituents exhibited higher quantum efficiency (0.4–0.6) than BPs with electronaccepting substituents. The quantum yields for Q→N isomerization increased with electron-accepting ability of the substituents on BPs, but were lower than 0.1. The rate constants for quenching of triplet BPs by N and Q were also determined in acetonitrile by means of laser flash photolysis. The rate constants for N were not dependent on the triplet energies (ET) of BPs but dependent on electronic properties of the substituents on BPs. On the contrary, those for Q increased with decreasing ET of BPs and with increasing Hammett’s σ constants of the substituents of BPs. Based on these observations an addition-elimination process is proposed for the N→Q isomerization, and an electron transfer process for the Q→N isomerization.