Photoaddition of water and methanol to 2,2,4,6-tetramethyl-1,2-dihydroquinoline

Products of the steady-state photolysis of 2,2,4,6-tetramethyl-1,2-dihydroquinoline (1) in water, methanol, and water—ethanol were isolated for the first time and identified by¹H and¹³C NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. As a result of the photolysis, the molecule of the solvent is added to the double bond of the heterocycle with formation of 4-hydroxy- (2) or 4-methoxy-2,2,4,6-tetramethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline (3) in water and methanol, respectively. Compounds2 and3 are converted gradually into1 in the dark. The rate of the back reaction depends on the solvent and the concentration of the product. Comparison of the products of the photolysis in methanol and hexane at 45 °C and of the azoisobutyronitrile-initiated oxidation of1 at the same temperature has shown that unlike the photolysis in hexane, aminyl radicals are not precursors of the product of the photolysis in methanol. The reaction proceedsvia an excited singlet state. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 11, pp. 2072–2077, November, 1999.