Acid and Polarity Effects in Benzene Photoreactions with Alkenes and Alkynes

In 1970 we observed that the course of the photochemical cycloadditions of certain ethylenic and acetylenic compounds to benzene, earlier reported by us [1, 2], was profoundly altered in the presence of proton donors, leading to a type of photochemical Friedel-Crafts reaction [3]. Since then, we have described, mostly in preliminary form, numerous further examples of acid catalysis in the photoreactions of benzene, viz. with amines [4], ethers [5], a ketone [6], a carboxylic acid [6], and hexafluorobenzene [7]. Our objective in this present paper is to bring together the previous preliminary reports on acid catalysis in the photoreactions of ethylenic and acetylenic compounds with benzene in conjunction with unpublished recent findings, and to provide a mechanistic rationale together with relevant experimental details. But before we proceed to consider the acid-catalysed processes, it is desirable to summarise the main types of reaction that have been shown to occur in the absence of acids. Ethylenes and/or acetylenes photoadd to benzene in the following four main ways: (a) ortho cycloaddition; (b) meto-cycloaddition; (c) £>ara-cycloaddition; and (d) para-ene addition [8, 9]. The mode of addition varies with the addend, and in some cases more than one pathway may be followed. In the case of (a), the adducts (1) of ethylenes may be obtained as such when the ethylenic addend is not a strong thermal dienophile, e.g. acrylonitrile [10], 2,3-dihydropyran [11]. When it is a strong dienophile, as in the case of maleic