Consequences of lattice relaxability in solid state photodimerizations

Abstract

With the view to understand the photobehaviour of olefinic crystalline compounds lattice energy calculations have been performed for a number of photodimerizable olefins. It is shown that to rationalize the photoreactivity of the compounds, dynamic topochemical concepts have to be invoked. Although the calculations have been carried out using the ground state geometry with the dispersion constants applicable to the ground state, the results are in agreement with the experimental observations. The limitations of the approach employed are pointed out.