Oxirens

Including oxiranes and oxirenes under the same rubric is somewhat akin to attempting to present an integrated discussion of the chemistries of cyclohexane and benzene the... 

Oxirene (2) is one of a number of heterocycles in which the CH2 group of cyclopropene has been replaced by a group or element associated with Groups V or VI of the periodic table. Replacement of the CHj group of cyclopropene by an NH group gives l//-azirine... 

We may now be on the verge of the third phase of oxirene chemistry in which modern matrix isolation techniques (80CSR1) will permit the spectroscopic observation of this system, theory will serve as a guide to the synthesis of relatively stable oxirenes (c/. a fairly stable... 

It has very recently been suggested that this species is not oxirene, but the authors do not make it clear how their intermediate differs from an oxirene canonical form (82JA216). 

The simplest, qualitative, theoretical understanding of the nature of oxirene is provided by Breslow s concept of antiaromaticity. Whatever criticisms may be levelled at this notion (78JA6920), it does correctly predict that oxirene should be unusually unstable. 

Neither ground-state ethynol (hydroxyacetylene) (80) nor carbenaoxirane (81) appears to be a viable point of ingress to the oxirene-methanoylcarbene system, as both can isomerize to ketene by lower-energy pathways. The limited experimental information available on carbenaoxirane (Section 5.05.6.3.4(f/)) indicates that it is indeed largely isolated from the oxirene-methanoylcarbene manifold (but note the photolysis of ketene in Section 5.5.6.3.4(ff)) appropriate labelling experiments with (the unknown) ethynol have not been performed. 

Reactions Possibly Involving an Oxirene, or with the a priori Potential of Generating an Oxirene... 

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