Trimethylenemethane Subject

It is obvious that the isobutene unit provides a good starting point for the generation of trimethylenemethane radical anions. However, even isobutane units can be used to produce these more highly unsaturated species. In a preliminary work aimed at two-and three-fold deprotonation processes in solution, Kuck, de Meijere and coworkers165 have subjected triquinacene (41) and the tribenzotriquinacenes 44 to NCI conditions with... 

As a final suggestion for future research, cyclobutanones have also provided the organic photochemist with the opportunity of investigating the existence of unusual and reactive intermediates oxacarbenes, trimethylene biradicals, trimethylenemethane biradicals, acyl alkyl biradicals, and ketenes. Evidence for the intervention of oxacarbenes in the ring-expansion reaction is quite compelling however, their unusual behavior relative to "typical" carbenes (e.g., failure to form cyclopropane adducts with some olefinic substrates) makes them prime subjects for further study and characterization. Unlike oxacarbenes, the existence of acyl alkyl biradicals (e.g., [30]) is tenuous at best. Ideally,... 

Since the time when the thermally induced methylenecyclopropane rearrangement (A - B) of Feist s esters was first observed by Ullman in 1959, rearrangements of a large number of methylenecyclopropane derivatives have been subjected to kinetic, stereochemical, and theoretical studies. The main objectives of these efforts were to understand the role and nature of the trimethylenemethane biradical intermediate (C ) in the rearrangement process. Considerable attention has focused on the theoretical and experimental elucidation of the relationship among structure, spin state, and reactivity of this simple non-Kekule molecule as well as on its applications as a synthetic and practicaP" intermediate. 

In this latter reaction mode, which is observed much more rarely than /3-dehydropal-ladation, a wide variety of ligands can be coupled to each other with the formation of new C—C, C—H, C— N, C—O, and C—Hal bonds. This section does not cover the numerous cascade couplings in which a number of successive intramolecular additions of 2 onto double bonds is eventually completed by /3-dehydropalladationt as well as the numerous [2 -I- 2 -I- 2] and [4 + 2] cyclotri- and cyclodimerizations of alkynes, enynes, and related compounds. " The Pd(0)-catalyzed Cope rearrangement also will not be considered here, as it proceeds via bis(i7 -allyl)palladium(ll) intermediates. The carbopalladation reactions of aUenes, which have been reviewed recently, are covered in Sect. IV.7. (For new examples see also refs. [10]-[12]). On the other hand, the numerous Pd-catalyzed formal [3 + 2] cycloadditions of trimethylenemethane (TMM) complexes may be classified as carbopalladations of alkenes without subsequent dehydropalladation. As the subject of this section has partially been covered in several newly published reviews, " the attention here will be on the most recent and interesting communications. 

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