ABSTRACT
A wide variety of carbonyl compounds undergo photoinduced intramolecular hydrogen atom abstraction to form biradicals that then undergo two common competing reactions: coupling to produce cyclic alcohols and disproportionation back to a ketone, to various enols, or to alcohols. The overall process closely parallels the well-known bimolecular photoreduction of ketones, the most common products of which are formed by radical coupling. These intramolecular hydrogen abstraction processes have been widely studied and several full reviews are available(including Chapter 58 of this book).
