Charge-transfer interactions,exciplex formations and ionic dissociations in singlet oxygen reactions

Intermolecular perturbation and configuration interaction calculations have been carried out to elucidate the attacking modes of singlet molecular oxygen (¹O₂) to allyl olefins and electron-rich olefins, which are classified into four groups from their molecular structures. It is found: (1) that the attacking modes are dependent on the molecular structure of substrates ; (2) that the charge-transfer (CT) interactions between ¹O₂ and substrates are particularly important for the formation of exciplexes through which the ene and (2+2) reactions of ¹O₂ proceed ; and (3) that the CT energy levels are important in governing the fraction of ionic dissociation to produce Superoxide anion and the relative ratio between the (4+2) and (2+2) reactions of ¹O₂ with dienes, heterocycles and related species.