Regioselective Ring Opening in Substituted Benzocyclopropenes. An Alternative or Complementary Mechanism for Electrophilic Substitution Involving Attack at a ? Bond

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ja00543a032

2-Methylbenzocyclopropene (5) reacts with bromine, iodine, and HCl to give the m-xylenes 12a,c,d as the major products, whereas it reacts with silver nitrate in the presence of ethanol and aniline to give the o-xylenes 11e,f as the major products.Similarly, 3-methylbenzocyclopropene (10) gives mainly m-xylenes 14a,c,d with halogens and HCl and gives p-xylenes 13e,f with silver nitrate and ethanol or aniline.Cyclopropa<3,4>benzocyclobutene (15) also gives different products with halogens and silver nitrate, but in this case HCl gives the same type of product as the silver ion.The difference in electrophilic behavior of 5, 10, and 15 toward the two types of reagents is suggested to arise from attack of the silver ion (and the proton in the case of 15) on the ? electrons of the cyclopropyl ring.