0000000000319185
AUTHOR
Wilhelm J. Baader
Mechanism of activated chemiluminescence of cyclic peroxides: 1,2-dioxetanes and 1,2-dioxetanones
Almost all chemiluminescent and bioluminescent reactions involve cyclic peroxides. The structure of the peroxide and reaction conditions determine the quantum efficiency of light emission. Oxidizable fluorophores, the so-called activators, react with 1,2-dioxetanones promoting the former to their first singlet excited state. This transformation is inefficient and does not occur with 1,2-dioxetanes; however, they have been used as models for the efficient firefly bioluminescence. In this work, we use the SA-CASSCF/CASPT2 method to investigate the activated chemiexcitation of the parent 1,2-dioxetane and 1,2-dioxetanone. Our findings suggest that ground state decomposition of the peroxide com…
Chemi- and Bioluminescence of Cyclic Peroxides
Bioluminescence is a phenomenon that has fascinated mankind for centuries. Today the phenomenon and its sibling, chemiluminescence, have impacted society with a number of useful applications in fields like analytical chemistry and medicine, just to mention two. In this review, a molecular-orbital perspective is adopted to explain the chemistry behind chemiexcitation in both chemi- and bioluminescence. First, the uncatalyzed thermal dissociation of 1,2-dioxetane is presented and analyzed to explain, for example, the preference for triplet excited product states and increased yield with larger nonreactive substituents. The catalyzed fragmentation reaction and related details are then exemplif…