Photochemistry of coumarin-3-peroxy acid tert-butyl ester

ORGN 409

Dmitry E Polyansky, Center for Photochemical Sciencies, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43402 and Douglas C. Neckers, Center for Photochemical Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403.
The direct monitoring of the photodecomposition by NMR in deuterated chloroform and acetonitrile revealed the formation of coumarin-3-carboxylic acid, acetone and tert-butanol as major photochemical products. The transient UV spectrum of coumarin-3-perester has two maxima (400 nm and broad band starting from 550 nm with a maximum at about 800 nm). A similar transient spectrum is described in literature for decomposition of bis(4-methoxybenzoyl) peroxide in acetonitrile and assigned to the benzoyloxy radical. The transient IR spectrum of coumarin-3-perester clearly demonstrates instant formation of a transient at about 1720 cm-1 and subsequent decay (t=2.1ms). Pre-saturation of the sample cell with oxygen caused no changes in the TRIR spectrum or the lifetime. This allowed us to assume that the transient at 1720 cm-1 corresponds to the oxygen centered radical (coumarin carboxy radical). The addition of acrylonitrile, a known radical scavenger, completely eliminated 1720 cm-1 transient.