Photochemistry of a chiral salen aluminum complex in nonconventional solvents: use of imidazolium ionic liquids and chiral alcohols

The photochemistry of a chiral (salen)aluminum(III) chloride complex has been studied in nonconventional solvents, namely, two imidazolium ionic liquids differing on the hydrophobicity (hydrophilic BF(4)(-) or hydrophobic PF(6)(-) counter anions) and in chiral 2-butanols (R and S). Upon 355 nm laser excitation, the same transient absorption spectrum (with some solvatochromic shift in lambda(max)) was recorded in all cases and assigned to the (salen)Al(II) complex with radicaloid character at the metal atom. This intermediate arises from the photoinduced homolytic cleavage of the apical Al-Cl bond. The half-life of this radicaloid Al(II) species varies depending on the solvent, indicating that its reactivity is governed by the nature of the ionic liquid and also on the R or S configuration of the chiral alcohol.