Cycloheptatriene radical cation formation

Formation of dihydrotropylium ions is a key feature of the C H9+ hypersurface. Currently, efforts in our laboratory276 have concentrated on the presence of different C H9+ isomers by probing their bimolecular reactivity. Thus, gas-phase titration in the FT-ICR mass spectrometer has revealed that mixtures of C7H9+ ions are formed by protonation of 1,3,5-cycloheptatriene, 6-methylfulvene and norbomadiene as the neutral precursors but that, in contrast to the results obtained by CS mass spectrometry, fragmentation of the radical cations of limonene yields almost exclusively toluenium ions275. 

The photo-oxidation of the aryl-substituted cycloheptatrienes 7-(/ -methoxy-phenyl)cycloheptatriene and 7-, 1- and 3-(/ -dimethylaminophenyl)cycloheptatrienes to the corresponding radical cations in de-aerated acetonitrile solution was accomplished by electron transfer to the electronically excited acceptors 9,10-dicyanoanthracene, iV-methylquinolinium perchlorate, iV-methylacridinium perchlorate and l,T-dimethyl-4,4-bipyridinium dichloride. In the case of l- p-methoxyphenyl)cycloheptatriene (62), deprotonation of the radical cation occurs successfully, compared with back electron transfer, to give a cycloheptatrienyl radical (63) which undergoes a self-reaction forming a bitropyl. If the photooxidation is done in air-saturated acetonitrile solution containing HBF4 and one of the acceptors, the tropylium cation is formed. Back electron transfer dominates in the / -dimethylaminocycloheptatrienes and the formation of the cycloheptatrienyl radical is prevented. 

Cycloheptatriene, Norbomadiene, Methylenecyclohexadienes (Isotoluenes) and Bicy-clof3.2.0/heptadienes. The gas-phase ion chemistry of ionized 1,3,5-cycloheptatriene is closely related to that of ionized toluene, in particular, and to that of norbomadiene and other non-aromatic ( yllx isomers. This extensive body of work will not be discussed here since a detailed review on this topic has been published by one of these authors in the context of the gas-phase chemistry of the alkylbenzene radical cations This chemistry pertains also to the well-known isomerization of the even-electron CvHv ions and to their formation from the respective parents, e.g. CyHs" " . A related, albeit chemically different held concerns protonated cycloheptatriene, i.e. the even-electron C7H9+ ions , and alkylcycloheptatrienes, which are closely related to protonated toluene and higher alkylbenzenium ions. A parallel review by one of these authors on protonated alkylbenzenes has been pubUshed, and recent investigations on protonated alkylcycloheptatrienes have highUghtened the complexity of this gas-phase ion chemistry 42 jp a minor extent, ionized and protonated fulvenes have also been investigated with respect to their interconversion to their (mainly arene-derived) isomers. 

Correspondingly, the reaction of cycloheptatriene with the carbenium ion PTM, which is much more shielded at the a-carbon than PDM, gives a quantitative yield of radical PTM- and tropylium hexachloroantimonate no a-H compound (PTM—H) is formed. This result, which implies the formation of radical-cation C7Hgt is undoubtedly due to severe steric shielding toward C—H bond formation (Ballester et ai, 1971c, 1982a Carreras, 1989). 

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