Enantioselective photocyclization of acrylanilides and N-Ethyl-N-methylbenzoylformamide in inclusion crystals with (R,R)-(-)-[trans]-2,3-bis(α-hydroxydiphenylmethyl)-1,4-dioxaspiro-[4.4]nonan e and -[4.5]decane. Mechanistic study based on x-ray crystal structure analyses

X-Ray structure analyses of the inclusion complexes indicated that the high stereo- and enantioselectivities in photocyclization of cyclohex-1-enecarboic acid methyl-phenyl-amide (3), N-methyl, N-{(E)-methylmethacryloyl}anilide (5), N-methyl, N-(methacryloyl)anilide (8), and N-ethyl-N-methylbenzoylformamide (10) are the result of their chiral conformations in the clathrate crystalline environment with the title chiral hosts [(-)-1 and (-)-2, respectively]. The chirality of acrylanilides and benzoylformamide can be indicated by the sign of the torsion angle in the backbone of the molecule, C-N-C(=O)-C and O=C(-Ph)-C(=O)-N, respectively. A partial single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation of 1:1 complex of 10 with (-)-1 was performed by photoirradiation to observe in situ the photoproduct.