Cyclopentadiene anion, aromatic character

Compounds containing methylene groups activated by both a cationic ring and another electron-withdrawing group easily form stable anhydro-bases, e.g. (636) — (637), (638) — (639). Stabilization is also achieved by utilization of the aromatic character of the cyclopentadiene anion or the pyrrole anion compounds of type (640 Z = NR, O, S) and (643) readily lose protons to give the mesomeric anhydro-bases (as 641 <- 642) which are called pseudoazulenes. 

The crucial structural feature which underlies the aromatic character of benzenoid compounds is of course the cyclic delocalised system of six n-electrons. Other carbocyclic systems similarly possessing this aromatic sextet of electrons include, for example, the ion C5Hf formed from cyclopentadiene under basic conditions. The cyclopentadienide anion is centrosymmetrical and strongly resonance stabilised, and is usually represented as in (7). The analogous cycloheptatrienylium (tropylium) cation (8), with an aromatic sextet delocalised over a symmetrical seven-membered ring, is also demonstrably aromatic in character. The stable, condensed, bicyclic hydrocarbon azulene (Ci0H8) possesses marked aromatic character it is usually represented by the covalent structure (9). The fact that the molecule has a finite dipole moment, however, suggests that the ionic form (10) [a combination of (7) and (8)] must contribute to the overall hybrid structure. 

Cyclopentadiene is an acidic hydrocarbon. In 1928 English chemist Christopher Ingold suggested that this was because the cyclopentadienyl anion had an aromatic sextet of electrons. This was the first case of aromatic character being attributed to an ion. An interesting derivative made from this very stable carbanion vizs ferrocene (discovered in 1951). 

To form an aromatic ion from cyclopentadiene, it is necessary to convert the CH2 group to a CH group in which the carbon becomes sp hybridized and has two electrons in its unhybridized 2p orbital. The resulting cyclopentadienyl anion is aromatic. Its aromatic character may also be represented by an inscribed circle with a minus sign (Figure 21.12). 

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