Theoretical study on the photochemistry of furoylazides: Curtius rearrangement and subsequent reactions

Organic azides are an efficient source of nitrenes, which serve as vigorous intermediates in many useful organic reactions. In this work, the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and its second-order perturbation (CASPT2) methods were employed to study the photochemistry of 2-furoylazide 1 and 3-furoylazide 5, including the Curtius rearrangement to two furylisocyanates (3 and 7) and subsequent reactions to the final product cyanoacrolein 9. Our calculations show that the photoinduced Curtius rearrangement of the two furoylazides takes place through similar stepwise mechanisms via two bistable furoylnitrenes 2 and 6. However, the decarbonylation and ring-opening process of 7 to 9 prefers a stepwise mechanism involving the 3-furoylnitrene intermediate 8, while 3 to 9 goes in a concerted asynchronous way without the corresponding 2-furoylnitrene intermediate 4. Importantly, we revealed that several conical intersections play key roles in the photochemistry of furoylazides. Our results are not only consistent and also make clear the experimental observations (X. Zeng, et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2018, 140, 10-13), but additionally provide important information on the chemistry of furoylazides and nitrenes.