Equilibrium Formation of Stable All-Silicon Versions of 1,3-Cyclobutanediyl.

Main group analogues of cyclobutane-1,3-diyls are fascinating due to their unique reactivity and electronic properties. So far only heteronuclear examples have been isolated. Here we report the isolation and characterization of all-silicon 1,3-cyclobutanediyls as stable closed-shell singlet species from the reversible reactions of cyclotrisilene c-Si3 Tip4 (Tip=2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl) with the N-heterocyclic silylenes c-[(CR2 CH2 )(NtBu)2 ]Si: (R=H or methyl) with saturated backbones. At elevated temperatures, tetrasilacyclobutenes are obtained from these equilibrium mixtures. The corresponding reaction with the unsaturated N-heterocyclic silylene c-(CH)2 (NtBu)2 Si: proceeds directly to the corresponding tetrasilacyclobutene without detection of the assumed 1,3-cyclobutanediyl intermediate.

Reductive Cleavage of Carbon Monoxide by a Disilenide.

The complete reductive cleavage of the triple bond in carbon monoxide was achieved using a lithium disilenide at room temperature. The C-C-coupled product can be regarded as a silanone dimer with pending alkyne and silirene moieties and incorporates two equivalents of CO per disilenide unit. A formation mechanism via ketenyl intermediates is proposed on the basis of DFT calculations and elucidated experimentally by employing Group 6 metal carbonyls as both stabilizing entity and source of CO in the reaction with disilenide. The isolation of cyclic silylene complexes with weakly donating ketenyl donor groups further supports the mechanistic scenario.

Endo- and exo-configured cyclopropylidenes incorporated into the norbornadiene skeleton: generation, rearrangement to allenes, and the effect of remote substituents on carbene stability.

For the synthesis of endo-configured cyclopropylidenes annelated to benzonorbornadiene, first the exo-bridge hydrogen in benzonorbornadiene was blocked with ethyl, bromine, and methoxy groups. All efforts to add dichloro-, dibromo-, or fluorobromocarbenes to ethylbenzonorbornadiene failed. However, addition of fluorobromocarbene to bromo- or methoxybenzonorbornadiene gave the corresponding cyclopropane derivatives bearing two halogen atoms, which were submitted to the Doering-Moore-Skattebøl reaction. The formed allene intermediates were trapped with furan. The reactivity of the double bonds in substituted benzonorbornadienes was analyzed by determination of the pyramidalization angles. Furthermore, the relative energies of various carbenes and their rearrangement to allene were studied at B3LYP/6-31G(d) level.

Substituent effects on the ring-opening mechanism of lithium bromocyclopropylidenoids to allenes.

The ring-opening reactions of lithium bromocyclopropylidenoids to allenes have been investigated computationally at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level of theory. Formally, two pathways can be considered: the reaction may either proceed in a concerted fashion or stepwise with the intermediacy of a free cyclopropylidene. In both cases, the loss of the bromide ion determines the kinetic of the reaction. The stability of the reactive intermediate, i.e., the carbene, is dependent on the substituent. Cyclopropylidenes bearing an electron-donating group (+M) are extremely unstable and ring-open readily to the allene. In contrast, bromocyclopropylidenoids with electron-withdrawing groups are particularly stable species. Here, a high energy barrier needs to be overcome in order to split off bromide and to generate the corresponding carbene or allene. Still, for most of the monosubstituted cyclopropylidenes investigated during this study, the activation energy for the cyclopropylidene to allene rearrangement is lower than the energy required for parent compound (X = H) except for X = -SiH3 and -CF3.

A mechanistic investigation on the formation and rearrangement of silaspiropentane: A theoretical study.

The formation of silaspiropentane from addition of singlet silacyclopropylidene 1 and silacyclopropylidenoid 8 to ethylene has been investigated separately at the B3LYP, X3LYP, WB97XD, and M05-2X theories using the 6-31+G(d,p) basis set. The silacycloproylidenoid addition follows a stepwise route. In contrast, a concerted mechanism occurs for silacyclopropylidene addition. Moreover, the intramolecular rearrangements of silaspiropentane 9 to methylenesilacyclobutane 11 and 2-silaallene + ethylene 12 have been studied extensively. The required energy barrier for the isomerization of 9 to 10 was determined to be 44.0 kcal mol(-1) at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level. After formation of 10, the rearrangement to methylenesilacyclobutane 12 is highly exergonic by -15.9 kcal mol(-1), which makes this reaction promising. However, the conversion of 9 to 11 is calculated to be quite endergonic, by 26.5 kcal mol(-1).

Substituent effects on hydrogen bonding of aromatic amide-carboxylate.

N-(p-benzoyl)-anthranilic acid (BAA) derivatives have been synthesized with different substituents (X: Br, Cl, OCH3, CH3), and their crystal structures have been analyzed in order to understand the variations in their molecular geometries with respect to the substituents by using (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR, IR and X-ray single-crystal diffraction. The carboxylic acid group forms classic OH⋯O hydrogen bonded dimers in a centrosymmetric R2(2)(8) ring motifs for BAA-Br and BAA-Cl. However, no carboxylic acid group forms classic OH⋯O hydrogen bonded dimers in BAA-OCH3 and BAA-CH3. The asymmetric unit consists of two crystallographically independent molecules in BAA-OCH3. DFT computations show that the interaction energies between monomer and dimer are in the range of 0.5-3.8kcal/mol with the B3LYP/6-31+G*, B3LYP/6-31++G*, B3LYP/6-31++G**, and B3LYP/AUG-cc-pVDZ levels of theory. The presence of different hydrogen bond patterns is also governed by the substrate. For monomeric compounds studied herein, theoretical calculations lead to two low-energy conformers; trans (a) and cis (b). Former one is more stable than latter by about 4kcal/mol.

The effect of the double bond pyramidalization on the mode of the bromination reaction: bromination of benzobicyclononadiene.

The bromination of 6,7,8,9-tetrahydro-5H-5,9-ethenobenzo[a][7]annulene yielded regio- and stereospecifically formed dibromides arising from the alkyl shift where the bromine exclusively attacks the double bond from the endo face of the double bond. DFT calculations on model compounds showed that the pyramidalization of the double bond and steric repulsion caused by the methylene protons are responsible for the stereo- and regioselective addition of bromine.

Synthesis and structure of cyclopropano-annelated homosesquinorbornene derivatives containing pyramidalized double bonds: evidence for the sterical effect of a cyclopropyl group on the degree of C=C double-bond pyramidalization.

[reaction: see text] endo- and exo-2,3,4,7-tetrahydro-1H-1,4-methanobenzocycloheptene-7-carboxylic acid ethyl esters have been synthesized, and their Diels-Alder cycloaddition reactions with maleic anhydride, dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate and singlet oxygen have been investigated. The X-ray analysis of four adducts indicated the pyramidalization of the central double bond. Density functional theory calculations on the isolated products and model compounds showed excellent agreement between the experimental and theoretical determined butterfly angles. Furthermore, it has been shown that a cyclopropyl group fused to [2.2.2] system decreases significantly the degree of the pyramidalization which is attributed to the steric interactions between the cyclopropyl group and ethano bridge of the norbornene systems. Due to the instability of the bicyclic endoperoxides, their X-ray analysis could not be carried out. DFT calculations on model compounds showed increased bending in the case of the product obtained by the addition of singlet oxygen to endo-2,3,4,7-tetrahydro-1H-1,4-methanobenzocycloheptene-7-carboxylic acid ethyl ester.

Incorporation of an allene unit into alpha-pinene: generation of the cyclic allene 2,7,7-trimethylbicyclo[4.1.1]octa-2,3-diene and its dimerization.

The reaction of etheral methyllithium with 3,3-dibromo-2,7,7-trimethyl-tricyclo[4.1.1.0(2,4)]octane (2) was investigated. The generated carbene 12 undergoes intramolecular C-H insertion to provide the tetracyclic hydrocarbon 3 and the bicyclic allene 15, which undergoes [2+2] cyclodimerization. The structures of the formed allene dimers 16, 17, and 18 were elucidated by spectral means. The activation barriers for all possible C-H insertion products 3, 13, and 14 and the allene 15 were investigated by using density functional theory computations at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level. It was found that the activation barriers for the formation of 3 and 15 (6.2 and 6.3 kcal mol(-1)) are much lower than that for the insertion products 13 and 14 (17.5 and 12.6 kcal mol(-1)), respectively. This prediction was completely in agreement with our experimental results.