Photodimerization of 1H-azepine-2,7-dione

1H-Azepine-2,7-dione 2 afforded photodimer 8 by irradiation using a high or low pressure mercury lamp. Photodimer 8 had a unique structure which must have formed with the prototropy in one of the two molecules of compound 2 . Measurement of the fluorescence spectra of 2 indicated a spectrum of the excimer during the dimerization of 2 . Irradiation of the dimer of 2 at its wave-length of maximal absorption failed to cause it to change into a monomer of 2 .