Cycloheptatriene rearrangement

Cyclodecyl cation hydride bridge, 147 1,4-Cycloheptadiene, 170, 171 Cycloheptatriene, 281 Cycloheptatrienes rearrangements, 290 Cycloheptatrienylidene, 275 interaction diagram, 276... 

It often is assumed that this type of toluene-cycloheptatriene rearrangement applies to other polysubstituted alkylbenzenes, alkylarenes and even alkyl heteroarenes. Indeed, this rearrangement explains the abundant loss of a whole substituent from an arene molecular ion in spite of the normally strong bond to a C(sp ) atom of the arene, which has to be cleaved to detach the substituent. Rearrangement into a substituted cycloheptatriene radical... 

C-jHg. A slightly coloured liquid, b.p. 90 C, obtained by a Diels-Alder reaction between cyclopcntadiene and ethyne at approximately 150°C. At temperatures in excess of 450°C it rearranges to cycloheptatriene (tropilidene). 

Bicyclo[2.2.1]heptadiene rearranges at elevated temperatures to cycloheptatriene and toluene. The reaction is facilitated by substituents at C-7 such as phenyl and alkoxy, in which case cycloheptatrienes are the dominant products. 

The thermal rearrangements of methyl-substituted cycloheptatrienes have been proposed to proceed by sigmatropic migration of the norcaradiene valence tautomer. The first step is an electrocyclization analogous to those discussed in Section 11.1. 

Alkoxycarbene complexes with unsaturation in the alkyl side chain rather than the alkoxy chain underwent similar intramolecular photoreactions (Eqs. 10 and 11) [60]. Cyclopropyl carbene complexes underwent a facile vinyl-cyclopropane rearrangement, presumably from the metal-bound ketene intermediate (Eqs. 12 and 13) [61]. A cycloheptatriene carbene complex underwent a related [6+2] cycloaddition (Eq. 14) [62]. 

Carbenes are so reactive that they add to the double bonds of aromatic rings. The products are usually not stable and rearrange to give ring expansion. Carbene reacts with benzene to give cycloheptatriene ... 

This kind of compound was obtained in the reaction of cycloheptatriene with dichloroazine CF3CC1=NN=CC1CF3 when heated at 70°C. A 1 1 mixture of rearranged adducts 31 and 32 was isolated and this latter compound was obtained as a mixture of two diastereomers in the ratio 77 23 (NMR spectroscopy, yield not given). The formation of these two compounds requires considerable skeletal rearrangement of any initial [3+2] or [3+6] cycloadduct and a satisfactory mechanism cannot be proposed. It was not possible to differentiate between structures 31 and 32 on the basis of the spectral data obtained (Equation 3) <1995JFC203>. 

The l-oxa-2,4,5-cycloheptatrienes 602 and 603 were postulated to be intermediates in the rearrangement of certain (ethynylfuryl)oxiranes to furo[3,4-b]furans [251]. The replacement of the methylene groups of 1,2-cycloheptadiene (465) by SiMe2 groups and the introduction of substituents at the allene moiety allowed the preparation of isolable seven-membered ring allenes. Thus, Barton et ah [177] obtained 604 and Ando et al. [178] 605. A few reactions of these systems have also been studied [177, 252]. Both groups [178, 253] synthesized the [4.4]betweenallene 606 and determined its structure by X-ray diffraction. 

It was shown that [1,5]-hydrogen shift occurs in this case about 30 times more quickly than that in the cycloheptatriene, while the butadienylcyclopropane rearrangement proceeds 3 x 10 9 slower than the Cope rearrangement of the isomeric 2,5-diene 11054. 

As to the cation-radical version of this isomerization, there are testimonies on the transition of the norcaradiene carcass into the cycloheptatriene skeleton. Calculations at the B3LYP level shows that cycloheptatriene cation-radical is more stable than norcaradiene cation-radical by ca. 29 kJ mol (Norberg et al. 2006). Hydrocarbon ion-radicals with strained ring structures have a tendency to undergo facile rearrangement to enforce the unpaired electron delocalization and release their strain energy. 

Tellurium-tetrachloride-promoted rearrangement of cycloheptatriene to benzylic alcohols... 

Ring expansion of cycloproparenes to cycloheptatrienes or tropones has been discussed in the context of electrophilic addition to cycloproparenes. When 1,1 -di-chloro-2,5-diphenylbenzocyclopropene (22) is thermolyzed in refluxing benzene, the dimer 373 is formed as a mixture of /Z-isomers. It is believed to arise via dimerization of the carbene 372, which, in turn results from an allylic rearrangement of22to371. ... 

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