Benzene oxide, theoretical studies

Structural information in the crystalline state can be obtained directly by x-ray diffraction studies, but this method has not been used extensively in the arene oxide-oxepin series since the majority of the monocyclic arene oxide-oxepins synthesized to date have been liquids and since chemical instability at ambient temperature is a common feature of many mono- and polycyclic arene oxides. X-ray crystal structure analysis has been carried out on the relatively stable K-region arene oxides 2-4. ° Similarly, an x-ray analysis of 5, a crystalline annelated benzene oxide (which, however, exists in both arene oxide and oxepin form in solution), has been reported and indicates that the six-membered ring is almost planar. The oxepin ring in compound 6 has been shown to exist in the boat conformation both in solution and in the crystalline state. The structural information thus obtained in the crystalline state is totally consistent with the spectroscopic data and the chemical reactivity of the arene oxides in solution and has been used in theoretical studies of the arene oxide-oxepin system. ... 

Dihydrodiols have not been obtained from hydrolysis reactions of benzene oxides however, evidence for the formation of 1,4-dihydrodiols has been obtained from acid-catalysis studies on 1,4-dimethylbenzene oxide 63 ° and 8,9-indan oxide 7. The mechanism of acid-catalyzed rearrangement and hydrolysis of benzene oxide has been investigated theoretically using the semiempirical allvalence electron MINDO/3 method and the perturbational MO method, both from the viewpoint of product stabilities and reaction pathways. The aromatization reaction was found to be much more exothermic than the hydrolysis and thus would be the preferred reaction, as was found experimentally. 

Stable disilenes are usually highly reactive toward oxidation and reduction because the 7i and n levels of disilene are much higher and lower than those of ethylene, as shown theoretically (Section III.A) and by the electrochemical oxidation and reduction potentials (Section III.E). Several stable disilenes are however stable in air for a long period. Disilene 27 undergoes very slow decomposition (half-life ca. 84 h) in wet THF solution at rt,60,61 and air oxidation of disilene 63 is completed in benzene at rt for a week.35 Disilene 27 survives for 4 months in the solid state. Since the oxidations and reductions of disilenes and their mechanisms have been extensively discussed in review OW, we mostly show herein the results of recent studies. 

The silylpaUadium(rV) complex (43), which has also been stmcturally characterized by X-ray diffiaction, is obtained by reaction of [PdMe2(dmpe)] with three equivalents of 1,2-disily 1-benzene. This reaction must involve oxidative addition steps of Si-H to Pd(II). Closely related to this complex is the unusual, formally Pd(VI) complex [Pd3(H2SiC6H4SiH2)3(L-L)2] (L-L = diphosphine) (44). The X-ray diffraction study of this complex revealed two short Si-Si contacts. Thus, the complex can also be understood as a Pd(II) derivative, as supported by theoretical calculations. 

---