The carcinogens 4-aminobiphenyl and 2-aminofluorene are metabolized to hydroxylamine esters that undergo N-O heterolysis to produce arylnitrenium ions that react with DNA, especially at guanine residues. These nitrenium ions and a number of their derivatives have been studied by the laser flash photolysis technique, to provide direct kinetic information about the lifetimes of the electrophiles in water and their reactivities with added nucleophiles. Arylnitrenium ions ArNH+ are longer-lived in water than arylcarbenium analogs ArCH2+, in some cases significantly longer-lived. The nitrenium ions do react with azide ion at the diffusion limit (providing the cation is not highly stabilized). This behaviour completely parallels that of carbenium ions. The biphenylyl- and fluorenylnitrenium ions react with guanine derivatives such as 2-deoxyguanosine (dG) with rate constants that are close to or at the diffusion limit (2 × 109 M-1 s-1) for the more reactive cations. Thus, in spite of cation lifetimes of the order of 100 ns to a millisecond in water, dG effectively competes with the solvent. The product is a C8 adduct, the same adduct observed with carcinogenic arylamines and DNA. With delocalized carbenium ions that have similar lifetimes, guanine derivatives compete very poorly with water. Thus, arylnitrenium ions have high dG:water selectivities; arylcarbenium ions have low selectivities. Nitrenium ions and carbenium ions do have parallel reactivities with primary alkyl amines. More reactive cations show a greater reactivity with less basic amines and the rate constants level below the diffusion limit. This can be explained by hydrogen bonding of the amine lone pair. Using the NH2 group of the alkyl amines as a model for the C2-NH2 group of guanine shows why nitrenium ions show no detectable reactivity at this site. The rate constant for the nitrenium-guanine reaction that forms the C8 adduct is at least an order of magnitude greater than that of a nitrenium-NH2 reaction. Nitrenium ions do form a guanine-NH2 adduct in DNA, suggesting that incorporation into the polymer changes reactivity patterns. With imidazoles, nitrenium ions show reactivity trends that parallel the nitrenium-dG reaction, with rate constants levelling at the 2 × 109 limit for the more reactive cations. Imidazole itself and 1-methylimidazole are generally less reactive than dG, while 2-methylimidazole and 1,2-dimethylimidazole are very similar. A Brönsted-like plot incorporating points for dG, primary amines and imidazoles shows no correlation of nitrenium rate constants with nitrogen basicity. This is true even if only dG and imidazoles are considered. Thus a previous correlation of nitrenium reactivity with purine N7 basicity is suspect. The conclusion is that there is some feature of guanine that makes its reaction with nitrenium ions unusually fast. The reasons for this are not immediately apparent, especially since there is conflicting evidence as to the detailed nature of the mechanism of the reaction that forms the C8 adduct. Key words: nitrenium, aryl azide, guanine, DNA, carcinogen.

A variety of methoxy- and methyl-substituted phenol radical cations have been generated and characterized by laser flash photolysis in solution under ambient conditions. The radical cations were generated by either photosensitized electron transfer using 1,4-dicyanonaphthalene with biphenyl as a cosensitizer in acetonitrile or by direct excitation of the phenol at 266 nm. The phenol radical cations have absorption maxima between 410 and 460 nm, with the exception of the 3,5-dimethoxyphenol which absorbs at 580 nm. The assignment of the observed transients to phenol radical cations is based on their spectral similarity to matrix spectra for the same species and to the corresponding methoxybenzene radical cations, as well as their characteristic reactivity. In the presence of small amounts of water the radical cations are not detected and the phenoxyl radical is the only observed transient in the photosensitized electron transfer. For those phenols for which authentic phenoxyl spectra are not available, the identity of the radical was confirmed by its generation by hydrogen abstraction by the tert-butoxyl radical. Although several of the phenols can be photoionized in either 1:1 aqueous ethanol or in acetonitrile, this is a less general route for the formation and characterization of the phenol radical cations. The rate constants for deprotonation of the phenol radical cations by water were measured and fall within the range (0.6−6) × 108 M-1 s-1; the 2-methoxyphenol radical cation is more reactive than the 4-methoxy, consistent with a recent estimate of the pK a for these species.

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Laser flash photolysis (UV-LFP) studies of benzylchlorodiazirine (1a), phenylchlorodiazirine (1b), phenylmethoxydiazirine (1c), 2,2-dimethoxy-5,5-dimethyl-∆ 3 -1,3,4-oxadiazoline (6a), 3,4-diaza-2,2-dimethoxy-1-oxa[4.3]spirooct-3-ene (6b), 5′,5′-dimethoxyspiro[adamantane]-2,2′-[∆ 3 -1,3,4-oxadiazoline] (6c), and diazofluorene (DAF) in the presence of oxiranes and thiiranes are reported. These compounds, upon irradiation, afford benzylchlorocarbene (2a), phenylchlorocarbene (2b), methoxyphenylcarbene (2c), dimethylcarbene (8a), cyclobutylidene (8b), adamantylidene (8c), and fluorenylidene (FL), respectively. Absolute rate constants for the transfer of oxygen and sulfur atoms to these carbenes have been determined in both acetonitrile and cyclohexane solvents. These carbenes abstract oxygen and sulfur atoms with bimolecular rate constants ranging from 10 4 to 10 10 M -1 s -1 at 22°C. Ylides from attack of carbenes onto heteroatom donors were not observed for any of the heteroatom transfer reactions. It was found that the magnitudes of the rate constants for heteroatom transfer are dependent on the philicity of the carbene intermediate, and trends in the kinetic data suggest that oxygen and sulfur atom transfers occur by concerted mechanisms through ylide-like transition states. The reactions of dimethoxycarbene (14) with cyclohexene oxide and propylene sulfide have been studied by the thermolysis of 6a, in benzene, at 110°C. It was found that dimethoxycarbene also abstracts oxygen and sulfur atoms, albeit in low yields. It is concluded that, for singlet carbenes, carbene electrophilicity is important in these heteroatom transfer processes.S0002-7863(97)03469-0 CCC: $15.00

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