Extreme oxatriquinanes and a record C-O bond length.

Oxatriquinanes are fused, tricyclic oxonium ions that are known to have exceptional stability compared to simple alkyl oxonium salts. C-O bonds in ethers are generally ∼1.43 Å in length, but oxatriquinane has been found to have C-O bond lengths of 1.54 Å. A search of the Cambridge Structural Database turned up no bona fide C-O bond length exceeding this value. Computational modelling of oxatriquinane alongside other alkyl oxonium ions indicated that the electronic consequences of molecular strain were primarily responsible for the observed bond elongation. We also show that substitution of the oxatriquinane ring system with alkyl groups of increasing steric demand pushes the C-O bond to unheard of distances, culminating in a tert-butyl derivative at a predicted 1.60 Å. Chemical synthesis and an X-ray crystallographic study of these compounds validated the results of the modelling work and, finally, an extraordinary 1.622 Å C-O bond was observed in 1,4,7-tri-tert-butyloxatriquinane.

The R3O+···H+ hydrogen bond: toward a tetracoordinate oxadionium(2+) ion.

Oxatriquinanes are tricyclic oxonium ions which are known to possess remarkable solvolytic stability compared to simple alkyl oxonium salts. Their rigid, hemispherical structure presents an oxygen at the apex of three fused five-membered rings. While trivalent oxygen species like these have been well described in the literature, the ability of oxygen to enter into a fourth covalent bonding relationship has been visited in theory and suggested by the outcome of certain reactions conducted in superacidic media, but has never been established by the characterization of a stable, persistent R(3)OH(2+) or R(4)O(2+) ion. In this study, the nucleophilicity of the oxatriquinane oxygen was evaluated first by a series of protonation studies using the Brønsted superacid H(CHB(11)Cl(11)) both in the solid state and in liquid HCl solution. The interaction of the oxatriquinane oxygen with a bridging carbocation was also examined. A strong case could be made for the occurrence of hydrogen bonding between H(CHB(11)Cl(11)) and oxatriquinane using IR spectroscopy. Under the most forcing protonation conditions, the oxatriquinane ring is cleaved to give a bridged, dicationic, protonated tetrahydrofuran-carbenium ion.