Kinetically distinct triplets in the photorearrangement of 2-phenylcyclohexanone to cis- and trans-6-phenyl-5-hexenals

A reinvestigation of the photochemistry of 2-phenylcyclohexanone reveals that the two aldehyde products, cis- and trans-6-phenyl-5-hexanal, come from triplets of different lifetimes. That the two distinct triplets are not simply the two conformers with phenyl axial and equatorial is demonstrated by the similar behavior of cis-4-t-butyl-2-phenylcyclohexanone. The trans isomer of this ketone is photostable. It is concluded that trans-enal arises by an almost concerted out-of-plane cleavage which forms a 1,6-biradical in the perfect geometry for disproportionation to trans-enal.The precursor to cis-enal may be a minor rotamer of 1 which is forced by nonbonded interactions into a cleavage mode which twists the biradical into a geometry suitable for at least partial formation of cis-enal. In both cases biradicals must be very short-lived and not rotationally equilibrated.