Maleic anhydride fulvene trap

In an attempt to trap fulvene 2 by the Diels-Alder reaction with maleic anhydride, another new photoreaction was discovered/ A cycloadduct was obtained which was suggested to be formed by direct addition to the excited state of benzene. Since then, photoadditions of alkenes to benzene and substituted benzenes have been studied extensively and become a powerful tool for synthetic approaches to complex polycycHc compounds. - ... 

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