Five-membered ring systems benzo furans

Five-Membered Ring Systems Furans and Benzo Derivatives... 

The lability of thieno[3,4-6]thiophene (3) and other iso-annelated systems, such as benzo[c]thiophene and benzole] furan, may be due to the strain effect (Mills-Nixon effect see also Zwanenburg et alP and references therein) in the condensed five-membered ring. The stability of the iso-annelated dithienothiophenes 7—9 is noteworthy. Simple LCAO MO method calculations on benzo[c]thiophene indicate that its instability is due to low specific delocalization energy and high free valence index at position 1. 

The TT-electron excess of the five-membered rings is accompanied by a high rr-donor character. The best measure of rr-donation is the value of first ionization potential, IP, which for all aromatic heterocycles with one heteroatom of pyrrole type reflects the energy of highest occupied rr-orbital. IP, values decrease in the sequence pyrrole > indole > carbazole furan > benzo[/ ]furan > dibenzofuran thiophene > benzo[/ ]thiophene (Section 2.3.3.9, Tables 21 and 23). Thus, the more extensive the rr-system, the stronger is its electron donor ability. Furan and thiophene possess almost equal rr-donation, which is considerably lower than that of pyrrole. 

The fusion of a benzene ring to the 2,3-positions of a pyrrole generates one of the most important heterocyclic ring systems - indole. This chapter develops a description of the chemistry of indole, then discusses modifications necessary to rationalise the chemistry of the benzo[ )]furan and benzo[ >]thiophene analogues. Finally, the trio of heterocycles in which the benzene ring is fused at the five-membered ring 3,4-positions are considered. 

In contrast to the benzoannelated nitrogen heterocycles, only a few kinds of benzoannelated systems without nitrogen have been described (Fig. 3.15). Five-mem-bered rings such as benzo[b]furans (336) [184, 461] and hydrobenzo[b]furans (337) (Scheme 3.41) [337, 462, 463] and six-membered rings like 4H-l-benzopyran-4-ones (4-chromones) (338) and 2H-l-benzopyran-2-ones (coumarines) (339) [96, 464, 465] 2,3-dihydro-4H-l-benzopyran-4-ones (chroman-4-ones) (340) [466] and 3,4-dihydro-lH-2-benzopyrans (isochromans) (341) [444] have been reported. 

---