Cyclobutadienes, dimerization intramolecular

The adduct generated from the benzvalene and butadiene was brominated and dehydrobrominated to a cyclohexadiene which seems to be a suitable precursor of tetrahedrane. However, its photolysis yields (2+2)intramolecular cycloadducts and its thermolysis gives only a cyclobutadiene dimer (99)99). 

Cyclooctatetraene (COT), a An non-aromatic hydrocarbon, is only one of the many (CH)s compounds, but it is a central character. The other isomers, many of which interconvert with COT by thermal and photochemical pathways, include bicyclo[4.2.0]octa-2,3,7-triene (BOT), semibullvalene (SB), barrelene (B), tricyclo[3.3.0.0 ]octa-3,7-diene (TOD), the cyclobutadiene dimers (CBD), tetracyclo[4.2.0.0. " 0 ]oct-7-ene (TOE), cubane (C), tetracyclo[4.2.0.0. 0 ] octene - the intramolecular Diels-Alder isomer of BOT (IDA), tetracy-... 

Alkvnes do rot dimerize photochemically to give cyclobutadienes, but dimers are formed from arylalkynes under conditions of electron-transfer sensitization (2.105). These dimers arise from a reaction of the alkyne radical cation with ground-slate alkyne, followed by intramolecular electrophilic attack on the benzene ring. 

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