This brief review deals with the thermal or photochemical synthesis and reactions of silacyclopropene or 1-sila-1,2-propadiene. The novel intramolecular reactions of silacyclopropene or 1-sila-1,2-propadiene are also discussed.

Direct irradiation of carbonyl compounds such as some aldehydes, ketones and anthraquinone in N,N-dimethylamiline(DMA), without using other solvents, gave $\beta$-hydroxyamines as the major products. Irradiation of anthrone and DMA in methanol afforded ${\gamma}$-hydroxyamine. The structure of the photoproduct was confirmed by treatment with an acid to give a bicyclic compound.

A porphyrin derivative covalently tinted to Ni aria-macrocycle complex has been prepared. Absorption spectrum of porphyrin-Ni aria-macrocycle dyad (λ$\^$max/$\sub$a/=227 nm) was observed to similar to a sum of those of tetratolylporphyrin (λ$\^$max/$\sub$a/=419 nm) and Ni aza-macrocycle (λ$\^$max/$\sub$a/=227 nm), indicating no electronic interaction between porphyrin and Ni aza-macrocycle moieties. Fluorescence quantum yield of dyad (${\Phi}$$\sub$f/= 0.10) was same to that of tetratolylporphyrin (${\Phi}$$\sub$f/= 0.10). Photoinduced intramolecular electron transfer or energy transfer from excited porphyrin moiety to Ni(II) aza-macrocycle moiety should be very inefficient in dyad.

The structurally rigid $\alpha$-(o-alkylphenyl) acetophenone derivatives lacking $\beta$-hydrogens, 3,3-dimethyl-2-o-tolylibdan-1-one and 2-o-tolyl-benzofuran-3-one, were prepared and their photochemical behaviors were examined. The former did not give any photoproduct while the latter turned into its enol tautomer. The difference of reactivity of two ketones was attributed to aromatic character of the extol of the benzofuranone. It was concluded that the reaction occurred via photoinduced 1,3-H transfer.

Studies have been conducted to explore photoaddition reactions of N-methylthiophthalimide with $\alpha$-silyl-n-electron donors Et$_2$NCH$_2$SiMe$_3$, n-PrSCH$_2$SiMe$_3$ and EtOCH$_2$SiMe$_3$. Photoaddition of $\alpha$-silyl amine Et$_2$NCH$_2$SiMe$_3$ to N-methylthiophthalimide occurs in $CH_3$CN and benzene to produce non-silicon containing adduct in which thiophthalimide thione carbon is bonded to $\alpha$-carbon of $\alpha$-silyl amine in place of the trimethylsilyl group. In contrast, photoaddition of EtOCH$_2$SiMe$_3$ to N-methylthiophthalimide generates two diastereomeric adducts in which thiophthalimide thione carbon is connected to $\alpha$-carbon of $\alpha$-silyl ether in place of u-hydrogen. Based on a consideration of the oxidation potentials of u-silyl-n-electron donors and the nature of photoadducts, mechanism for these photoadditions involving single electron transfer(SET) -desilylation and H atom abstraction pathways are proposed.

In order to obtain thermal-stable, low birefringent, and low optical loss waveguiding materials, we synthesized several fluorinated poly (maleimide-co-glycidylmethacrylate)s using a pentafluorophenylmaleimide (PEM) and two kinds of methacrylate derivatives as comonomers and glycidylmethacrylate as a crosslinker. One comonomer is a linear fluorinated methacrylate (HFBM) and another is a bulky norbornane-derived methacrylate (NMMA). These copolymers could be self-crosslinked by heating due to epoxy groups of glycidylmethacrylates. As a maleimide contents increased to 50 mol%, these copolymers showed high decomposition temperatures of above 300$^{\circ}C$. The refractive index could be precisely controlled by the variation of PFM/HFBA or PFM/NMMA feed ratio in the range of 1.410∼1.508 at 643 nm. The copolymers had very low birefringence in the range of 1∼5${\times}$10$\^$-4/.

The solvent effect in a series of polar and non-polar solvents of varying dielectric constants and refractive indices has been investigated by studying electronic spectra (S$_1$band) of a series of exalite laser dyes at room temperature (25$\pm$1$\^{C}$). These data are used to determine the magnitude ($\mu$$\_$e/) and direction ($\theta$) of the electric dipole moments in the first electronically excited state. The results indicate that the observed band systems in these compounds may be attributed to ←$\pi$ transition.