Fluorenyl cations, generation

The 9-fluorenyl cation, being a 4 -electron system, should be antiaromatic, as has been generally believed. However, Richard and coworkers provided experimental and theoretical data suggesting that this cation is not antiaromatic.Recent preparation of several fluorenyl dications, on the other hand, does prove that the fluorenyl system is antiaromatic in the dicationic systems. Mills and coworkers have generated the fluorenyl dications (115-120) by SbFs-oxidation of the tetraben-zofulvalene derivatives containing fluorenylidene and —five- and seven-membered... 

The photochemical generation of arylmethyl cations from arylmethanols has been the topic of several papers this year. For mono-aryImethanols in which the aromatic group is phenyl, naphthyl, pyrenyl or phenanthryl, Wan has reported that ultra-violet light irradiation in aqueous alcoholic sulphuric acid solution yields the corresponding ether,presumably by way of an intermediate arylmethyl carbocation. Photolysis of (414) in aqueous alcohol to give (415) is found to proceed even in the absence of acid, while the non-cyclic analogue (416) reacts much less efficiently, even at low values of pH. This reactivity difference has been observed previously for fluorenol and benzhydrol and is attributed to extra stabilisation of the intermediate carbocation in the fluorenyl system. 

Numerous benzylic-type cations have been generated by this method, including di- and triarylmethyl [52-59], xanthyl [8,24], and fluorenyl cations... 

Both the 9-methyl and 9-trifluoromethyl-9-fluorenyl cations (7 and 8) have been generated by laser flash photolysis of corresponding alcohol precursors. The product ions were then studied by time-resolved spectroscopy. Consistent with previous studies related to carbocation-bearing electron-withdrawing groups, ion (8) exhibits a significant bathochromic shift in the UV absorption compared to (7). The ions were quenched with methanol and reaction rates showed cation (8) to be a more reactive species. 

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