Hisako Nakagawa, T. Nakashima, T. Kawai
Aug 1, 2012
Citations
0
Influential Citations
16
Citations
Journal
European Journal of Organic Chemistry
Abstract
4,5-Dibenzothienylthiazole derivatives having leaving groups at the reactive 2-positions of benzothiophene rings have been synthesized, and their photochromic ring-closing reaction followed by spontaneous elimination and substitution reactions have been studied. A 4,5-dibenzothienylthiazole having an ethoxy group and a hydrogen atom at each 2-position of the benzothienyl ring underwent elimination to generate a condensed aromatic structure upon the addition of acid. 4,5-Dibenzothienylthiazoles having an ethoxy or methyl groups at the 2-position of the benzothienyl rings showed photochromism both in hexane and in methanol solutions with photocyclization quantum yields as high as 60 %. Upon the addition of acid to the methanol solutions of closed-ring isomers of dibenzothienylthiazoles, the substitution of the ethoxy group with a methoxy group occurred. The generation and rearrangement of the carbocation intermediate formed by elimination of the ethoxy group from the closed-ring isomers were apparent from the chemical structure of methoxy-substituted products.