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The photochemical pinacol reaction of a series of nonsymmetrical 9-fluorenyl-substituted vic-diols was investigated and compared with their acid-catalyzed thermal reaction. Unlike the thermal reaction, the radiation-induced processes involve only fluorenyl cations, as is reflected in differences of product distribution between the two reactions. From the product studies, substituent migratory aptitudes are reversed in the photochemical process, suggesting that kinetic control takes place under neutral conditions unlike the acid-catalyzed thermal reactions. The presence of fluorenyl cation intermediates and their lifetimes were established by laser flash spectroscopy studies.

The efficient synthesis of a number of novel poly(ethylene glycol)-based branched soluble polymer supports with high loading capacities has been developed. These compounds are characterized and tested for their loading levels utilizing a number of coupling reactions.

The substituted fluorenyl cation, 9-(diphenylmethyl)fluoren-9-yl cation (4), is formed under stable ion conditions (low temperature/strong acid) from its corresponding alcohol 3. This ion is transformed to a substituted diphenyl methyl cation 8 at ambient temperature via an apparent 1,2-hydrogen shift. Irradiation of 9-(diphenylmethyl)fluoren-9-ol in methanol gives products derived from the corresponding cation along with radical-derived products from C-C and C-O homolysis processes. The laser flash photolysis of this alcohol gave a transient corresponding to cation 4. All of the photoproducts are derived from cation 4 or radical pathways. High level MO calculations point to a high barrier (23.8 kcal x mol(-1)) for the 1,2-hydride shift. This barrier is the consequence of the minimum energy conformation of this fluorenyl cation which is less than ideal for the periplanar geometry necessary for this process.

Irradiation of 9,9'-bifluorene-9,9'-diol (1) gave 9-fluorenone and spiro[9H-fluorene-9,9'(10'-H)-phenanthren]-10'-one (4), the latter arising from a pinacol rearrangement. The distribution of fluorenone and ketone 4 was solvent dependent with the latter being the major product in trifluoroethanol, a solvent known to stabilize carbocation intermediates. Laser flash photolysis of diol 1 in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol or hexafluoro-2-propanol showed two transients absorbing at 350 and 505 nm with a weak band at 700 nm. The latter two peaks are assigned to the corresponding substituted 9-fluorenyl cation (5) formed from photoheterolysis of diol 1. Comparison of the decay kinetics between cation 5 and other 9-fluorenyl cations, the parent 9-fluorenyl and 9-phenyl-9-fluorenyl cations, showed that the decay of 5 was relatively insensitive to the nature of the solvent as compared to the latter two carbocations suggesting that unimolecular rearrangement in 5 competes with nucleophilic quenching.

The 9-[N,N-dimethyl(thioformamidyl)]-9-fluorenyl cation was generated under stable ion conditions and characterized by UV/visible and NMR spectroscopy and methanol trapping reactions. The same cation was generated by laser excitation of the appropriate chloride precursor in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol, and rate constants for nucleophilic quenching by alcohols and several anions were measured. The quenching data for this and other 9-fluorenyl cations demonstrate that the reactivity decreases for 9-substituents in the order H > carbomethoxy > N,N-dimethyl(thioformamidyl), demonstrating that the thioamidyl group imparts substantial kinetic stabilization to an adjacent cationic center. Both steric and electronic factors are suggested to be important in determining this reactivity order.