Absolute configuration correlation studies in solid state organic photochemistry

An ever-increasing number of examples in the literature attest to the fact that photochemical reactions carried out in optically active crystalline media can lead to enantiomerically enriched products in high optical yields. Taken from our own work and that of others, this article examines the relatively few examples of such reactions in which the absolute stereochemical arrangements of the molecules in the reactant crystals are correlated with the absolute configurations of the optically active products formed by irradiation of the same crystals. Studies of this type provide penetrating insights into the mechanisms of the reactions in question, and in addition, help to pinpoint the crystal lattice-derived stereoelectronic factors that an responsible for the observed enantioselectivities.