Pyrazines ring transformations forming

In the crystal structure of the polymer phase (Fig. 17a), the polymer chains are aligned along the c-axis and the distance (3.71 A) between the centres of adjacent cyclobutane and pyrazine rings corresponds to half the c-axis repeat of the unit cell. For comparison between the monomer and polymer structures, an overlay plot of these structures is shown in Fig. 17b. It is clear that the solid-state reaction is associated with only very small atomic displacements at the site of the [2-1-2] photocyclization reaction (the displacement of the carbon atoms of the C=C double bonds of monomer molecules on forming the cyclobutane ring of the polymer is only ca. 0.8 A for one pair of carbon atoms and ca. 1.6 A for the other pair). Such small displacements are completely in accord with the assignment of this solid-state reaction as a topochemical transformation [124—127] (in which the crystal structure of the reactant monomer phase imposes geometric control on the pathway of the... 

The conversion of DAMN into 2,3-dicyanopyrazines substituted in the 5-and 6-positions with various combinations of amino, cyano, chloro, and hydroxyl groups will be described in this section along with transformations of these initially formed materials into a variety of other multifunctional and fused ring pyrazines. 

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