The current status on the photochemistry of the carbon-halogen bond, incorporated in a wide variety of organic compounds, is presented. It mainly deals with the photolytic cleavage of theC-X bond in solution phase. The major development in this field has been the generation of saturated, vinyl and α-keto carbonium ions by photochemical methods. The factors that control the type of cleavage, viz, homolytic-heterolytic are discussed. The mechanistic aspects as well as the synthetic utility of the photoreactions of some organic halides are highlighted.

The crystal structure of C₁₂OH₂₀ (lR-6R-4R-2 R-3,7,7-trimethyl-4-(2-hydroxyethyl) bicyclo [4.1.0] hept-2-ene) has been determined by X-ray diffraction. The compound crystallizes in space group P2₁2₁2₁ witha = 5.893(1),b = 22.572(2), c = 26.164(3) Å,V = 3480.3 Å₃, Z= 12. The structure was solved by modified direct methods and refined to anR value of 0.081 for 607 unique reflections. Each asymmetric unit has three molecules which are held together through intermolecular hydrogen bonds resulting in a novel spiral-type arrangement of molecules. The six-membered ring has a half-chair conformation.