Photoreactions of Semi-Stiff-Diarylethenes Based on the Cyclohexenol Motif

Nonsymmetric diarylethenes with an additional “stiff”
cyclohexenol ring undergo various types of tandem transformations
launched by light-induced 6π-photocyclization. Among these,
there are two novel reactions (formal [1,3]-H migration and complete
aromatization to an anthracene derivative) as well as photorearrangement
and formal methane elimination. This diverse reactivity demonstrates
the great potential of semi-stiff-diarylethenes in synthetic photochemistry.