• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.63-66
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• 2005

The azomethine ylide forming photoreaction has been explored by probing the excited state chemistry of several N-trimethylsilylmethyl substituted cyclic and acyclic imides and amide analogs. N-[(Trimethylsilyl)methyl]-N-mesylbenzamide (5) undergoes the excited state C to O silyl migration reaction to produce azomethine ylide intermediate 13. This ylide undergoes electrocyclization to form transient aziridine intermediate 14 which react further by ring opening to generate N-phenacylamine product 10. On the other hand, photolysis of N-[N-mesyl-N-(trimethylsilyl)methyl]aminoethyl-N-mesylbenzamide (8) brings about desilylation resulting in the production of dimer 17.