Ring structures cationic rearrangement

As to the cation-radical version of this isomerization, there are testimonies on the transition of the norcaradiene carcass into the cycloheptatriene skeleton. Calculations at the B3LYP level shows that cycloheptatriene cation-radical is more stable than norcaradiene cation-radical by ca. 29 kJ mol (Norberg et al. 2006). Hydrocarbon ion-radicals with strained ring structures have a tendency to undergo facile rearrangement to enforce the unpaired electron delocalization and release their strain energy. 

The mechanism proposed involves the formation of a complex (15i, Equation 15a) between the cationic initiator and the hydrocarbon ring, followed by its transformation into a carbo cation (152) similar to the spiropentylium ion proposed by Fanta (23). The intermediate structure (153) rearranges by cyclization because of the presence of Lewis acid and the rather high reaction temperature. 

Here is a more convincing example of the same fragmentation reaction the conditions, but not the results, are those of a Beckmann rearrangement. In this reaction, the ring structure means the cation cannot be trapped by the nitrile, and a fragmentation product is isolated. 

With 2-methyl- and 2,4-dimethylthiazole, the methyl thiirenium ion (m/e 72) is obtained, which can easily lose a hydrogen radical to give the ml ell ion (confirmed by the metastable peak). This latter can rearrange by ring expansion to give the thietenyl cation whose structure was confirmed in certain spectra by the presence of a metastable peak corresponding to the decomposition of the m/e 71 ion to give the thioformyl cation m/e 45, probably by elimination of acetylene. 

A more detailed evaluation of the diverse structures proposed for the secondary species goes beyond the scope of this review. We mwely emphasize that the ESR results provide detailed evidence for the nature of the radical center, but fail to elucidate the cationic site. The identity of this center is left to secondary considerations or speculation. We also note that any alternative structure has the virtue of not contradicting the ab irutio calculations the potential c ture of chloride ion has precedent in the nucleophilic substitution at a cyclopropane carbon (see Section 7). Another type of ring-opened structure has been postulated as an intermediate in the aminium radical cation catalyzed rearrangement of l-aryl-2-vinylcyclopropanes (see Section 5). 

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