1 - -4-methylbenzene

Aromatics - Benzene, Methylbenzene (Toluene) Dimethylbenzene (Xylenes) Naphthenes - Cyclopentane, Cyclohexane... 

The skeletal rearrangement of various strained cyclic compounds is carried out with a catalytic amount of soluble complexes of PdCl2. Namely, the rearrangements of bulvalene (67) to bicyclo[4.2.2]deca-2,4,7,9-tetraene (68)[54], cubane (69) to cuneane (70)[55], hexamethyl Dewar benzene (71) to hexa-methylbenzene (72)[56], and 3-oxaquadricyclanes[57] and quadricyclane (73) to norbornadiene[58-60] take place mostly at room temperature. Reaction of iodocubane (74) with a terminal alkyne catalyzed by Pd(0) and CuBr unexpectedly affords an alkynylcyclooctatetraene 75, without giving the desired cubylalkyne 76. Probably the rearrangement is a Pd-catalyzed reaction[61]. 

Transalkylation is also catalyzed by acids, but requires more severe conditions than isomerization. As shown below, the methyl migration is intermolecular and ultimately produces a mixture of aromatic compounds ranging from benzene to hexamethylbenzene. The overall equiHbrium constants for all possible methylbenzenes have been deterrnined experimentally and calculated theoretically (Fig. 2 and Table 3). 

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