Cyclooctatetraenes acetylene derivatives

Cuprous salts catalyze the oligomerization of acetylene to vinylacetylene and divinylacetylene (38). The former compound is the raw material for the production of chloroprene monomer and polymers derived from it. Nickel catalysts with the appropriate ligands smoothly convert acetylene to benzene (39) or 1,3,5,7-cyclooctatetraene (40—42). Polymer formation accompanies these transition-metal catalyzed syntheses. 

Some preliminary work on the oligomerization of acetylenes, particularly ethylpropiolate and phenylacetylene, using supported nickel(O) catalysts has been reported (4, 15, 30). The initial products appear to be benzene derivatives (4, 30), although one group (30) reports that reuse of the catalyst yielded some cyclooctatetraene derivatives on the second... 

Cyclotetramerization to form cyclooctatetraene occurs only with nickel.46,63 68 The best catalysts are octahedral Ni(II) complexes, such as bis(cyclooctatetraene) dinickel.46 Internal alkynes do not form cyclooctatetraene derivatives but participate in cooligomerization with acetylene. Of the possible mechanistic pathways, results with [l-13C]-acetylene81 favor a stepwise insertion process or a concerted reaction, and exclude any symmetric intermediate (cyclobutadiene, benzene). The involvement of dinuclear species are in agreement with most observations.46,82-84... 

REPPE PROCESS. Any of several processes involving reaction of acetylene (1) with formaldehyde to produce 2-butync-l,4-diol which can be converted to butadiene (2) with formaldehyde under different conditions to produce propargyl alcohol and, form this, allyl alcohol (3) with hydrogen cyanide to yield acrylonitrile (4) with alcohols to give vinyl ethers (5) with amines or phenols to give vinyl derivatives (6) with carbon monoxide and alcohols to give esters of acrylic acid (7) by polymerization to produce cyclooctatetraene and (8) with phenols to make resins. The use of catalysis, pressures up to 30 atm, and special techniques to avoid or contain explosions are important factors in these processes. 

Partially substituted derivatives of polyacetylene are synthesized via the ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of cyclooctatetraene (COT) and its derivatives. Certain poly-COT derivatives afford soluble, highly conjugated poly acetylenes. These materials exhibit large third-order optical nonlinearities and low scattering losses. 

Ortho photocycloaddition was first reported in a U.S. patent [1] dated September 3, 1957. Irradiation of benzonitrile in the presence of various alkenes resulted in the formation of derivatives of l-cyanobicyclo[4.2.0]octa-2,4-diene. The first ortho photocycloaddition to benzene was reported in 1959 by Angus and Bryce-Smith [2], who discovered that benzene and maleic anhydride react to form a stable adduct at 60°C under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. This 1 2 adduct was formed from one molecule of benzene and two molecules of maleic anhydride. Two years later, Bryce-Smith and Lodge [3] found that acetylenes could also be photoadded to benzene. The isolated products were cyclooctatetraenes, formed by ring opening of the primarily formed bicyclo[4.2.0]octa-2,4,7-trienes. Since those early years, hundreds of examples of ortho photocycloadditions of alkenes to the benzene ring and many mechanistic investigations have been reported and they will be discussed in this chapter. 

The primary ortho adducts formed from benzene derivatives and acetylenes are derivatives of bicyclo[4.2.0]octa-2,4,7-triene. These products usually are not isolated but isomerize during the irradiation to cyclooctatetraenes [58,59,68,72], From combinations of hexafluorobenzene and pentafluoroalkoxybenzenes with various disubstituted acetylenes, however, the isolation of relative stable primary ortho adducts has been reported [65-67], In Scheme 46, the products of the photochemical reaction of hexafluorobenzene with but-2-yne are shown [67],... 

Benzene and cyclooctatetraene (COT) derivatives are formed by [2+2+2] and [2+2+2+2] cycloadditions of alkynes. At first the metallacyclopropene 107 and metallacyclopentadiene 108 are formed. Benzene and COT (106) are formed by reductive elimination of the metallacycloheptatriene 109 and the metallacyclononate-traene 110. Formation of benzene by the [2+2+2] cycloaddition of acetylene is catalysed by several transition metals. Synthesis of benzene derivatives from... 

Treatment of propiolic esters with catalysts of the type Ni(PX3)4 affords small amounts of tetrasubstituted cyclooctatetraenes in addition to benzene derivatives. This is the only other reported instance of cyclotetramerization of an alkyne using a Ni(0) catalyst 86). The synthesis of heptatrienenitrile was discovered in 1952 by Cairns et al. 87). These authors treated acetylene with acrylonitrile in the presence of phosphine-substituted nickel carbonyls. Under these conditions the reaction requires an induction period during which bis(acrylonitrile)-nickel and/or its phosphine adducts are formed. Bis(acrylonitrile)-nickel in the presence of triphenylphosphine is now known to be immediately reactive under similar conditions 42). Formation of (XL) must involve a hydrogen shift, and may proceed according to Eq. (22)... 

Various routes to polyacetylene and derivatives. A. Direct Ziegler-Natta polymerization of acetylene as developed by Shirakawa. B. Feast s retro Diels-Alder, precursor polymer route. C. Ring-opening metathesis pol)rmerization (ROMP) of a substituted cyclooctatetraene as developed by Grubbs. 

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