pubs.acs.org/joc Rearrangement of Dewar Benzene Derivatives Studied by DFT Martin Dracı´ nsky,* ,† Obis Castano,~ ‡ Martin Kotora,†,§ and Petr Bour*,† †Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences, 166 10 Prague, Czech Republic, ‡Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Alcala, 28871 Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain, and §Department of Organic Chemistry, Charles University in Prague, Hlavova 8, 128 43 Praha 2, Czech Republic
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[email protected] Received September 24, 2009 Skeletal rearrangement of a series of substituted Dewar benzenes to biaryl products was studied with DFT methods. Excellent agreement of calculated free energies of activation with experimental kinetic data was achieved. Two different transition states were proposed to be involved in the rearrangement. The reaction path was studied both by static intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) calculations and first-principles Car-Parrinello and Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics. All approaches con- firmed the suggested reaction mechanism. Introduction found in persubstituted DBs bearing an electron-withdraw- ing group.5-7 A remarkable resistance to the rearrangement The Dewar benzene (DB) 1, a metastable benzene valence has also been found in a DB-ferrocene conjugate.8 isomer, has attracted considerable interest of both synthetic Recently, more stable DB derivatives have even found and theoretical chemists. The first syntheses of Dewar ben- interesting practical applications. Typical examples include zenes were enabled in the 1960s by a clever choice of - their use in the synthesis of oligophenylene macrocycles,9 11 conventional reactions and/or UV irradiation of suitable implementation as a supramolecular protecting group,12 precursors. By this combination, the first valence-bond 13 - synthesis of ladderanes, and high content DB polymers.