Co-host: The Chemical Society of Japan, The Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (Cooperation)
We have found that both benzhydrol and benzpinacol were obtained as major products in the photoreaction of benzophenone and 1,3-dimethyl-2-phenylbenzimidazoline (DMPBI), and their yields markedly varied depending on the kind of proton donor. On the other hand, in the photoreaction of benzophenone and 2-hydroxyphenyl-1,3-dimethylbenzimidazoline (HPDMBI), benzpinacol was a major product regardless of the reaction conditions. In order to investigate further photoinduced electron transfer reaction mechanism of DMPBI or HPDMBI with benzophenones, we conducted photoreaction of 3-methylbenzophenone as a probe substrate under the various reaction conditions. We also explored the properties of the oxidation products derived from DMPBI and HPDMBI.