Intramolecular hydrogen-atom tunneling and photoreaction mechanism of 4-bromo-2-chloro-6-fluorophenol in low-temperature argon matrices

Infrared spectra of 4-bromo-2-chloro-6-fluorophenol in low-temperature argon matrices were measured with an FTIR spectrometer. Despite that an F-type geometrical isomer, which has an intramolecular hydrogen bond of OH⋯F, is as stable in the CCl4 solution at room temperature as a Cl-type geometrical isomer, which has that of OH⋯Cl, no infrared bands of the F-type were observed in an argon matrix at 20 K. This implied that the F-type changed to the more stable Cl-type by hydrogen-atom tunneling in the argon matrix. To confirm the tunneling isomerization, similar experiments on the deuterated species were performed, resulting in that an OD stretching band of the F-type appeared as well as that of the Cl-type. This finding suggested that a deuterium is inhibited from the tunneling migration. The UV-induced photoreaction pathways of 4-bromo-2-chloro-6-fluorophenol were additionally examined, resulting in that 2-fluoro-4-bromocyclopentadienylidenemethanone was produced from the Cl-type by Wolff rearrangement after dissociation of the H atom in the OH group and the Cl atom. However no cyclohexadienone derivative, which is analogous to a photoproduct of a parent molecule, 2-chloro-6-fluorophenol, was produced upon UV irradiation. It is concluded that the bromine atom located at the 4th position disturbs the intramolecular migration of the Cl atom.