C. A. van Walree et al.
FULL PAPER
106 mmol) was added, upon which a clear, orange-red solution was
obtained. The temperature of the reaction mixture was gradually
allowed to reach room temperature. After 1 h stirring, a solution
of benzil (10.00 g, 47.57 mmol) in THF (70 mL) was added in
30 min. The reaction mixture was refluxed overnight, quenched
with water (250 mL) and extracted with diethyl ether (3ϫ250 mL).
The combined organic layers were dried on magnesium sulfate, fil-
tered and dried under reduced pressure. Crude 1 (16.09 g, purity Ͻ
76% according to GC) was obtained after flash chromatography
with chloroform on silica. Consecutive recrystallisations from hex-
1,5-diene). This compound adopts a C2 geometry with a
central torsion angle (compare to φ in 1) of 71.7° and a θ-
like torsion angle of –174.8°.[16] Ab initio calculations at
various levels of theory give a somewhat larger torsion an-
gle φ of 73.8–80.2° and θ values in the range 172.4–
174.8°.[16,30] According to the same calculations, a con-
former with φ and θ angles of 158.4 and –48.5°, respectively,
being reminiscent of the s-trans structure of 1, occurs as
well.[16] It is 2.1 kcalmol–1 higher in energy than the mini-
mum structure. In 1, the preference for the gauche geometry ane and ethanol gave 1.5 g (15%) of pure 1 (purity Ͼ 99.7% by
1
GC); m.p. 46 °C (ref.[36] 45–47 °C). H NMR (CDCl3): δ = 7.41–
is thus less pronounced. When interpreted in terms of con-
2
7.36 (m, 4 H, Ar-H), 7.29–7.20 (m, 6 H, Ar-H), 5.53 (d, JH,H
=
jugation, this suggests that in the s-gauche structure of 1
interaction between the double bonds and the phenyl
groups is relatively inefficient. This is rationalized by the
fact that stabilization by interactions between olefinic π-
levels, which are of similar energy, will be more favourable
than stabilization by an interaction between energetically
different phenyl and olefinic π-levels. It is further note-
worthy that in the prevailing structure of the simplest cross-
conjugated compound, [3]dendralene (3-methylenepenta-
1,4-diene), there is a slightly twisted anti-butadiene frag-
ment while the third vinyl group is rotated by 40–50° rela-
tive to the butadiene plane.[29,30]
2
1.65 Hz, 2 H, =CH2), 5.30 (d, JH,H = 1.65 Hz, 2 H, =CH2) ppm.
13C NMR (CDCl3): δ = 150.0 (C =CH2), 140.4, 128.3 (2ϫ), 127.7
(aromatic C), 116.5 (C=CH ) ppm. IR (neat): ν = 3032, 1608, 1574,
˜
2
1493, 1443, 1098, 1071, 1029, 902, 774, 705 cm–1. GC-MS: m/z =
206 [M+], 191, 178, 165, 152, 128, 115, 102, 91, 77, 51.
Supporting Information (see also the footnote on the first page of
this article): Cartesian coordinates of the MP2/6-311G* s-gauche
and s-trans geometries of 2,3-diphenylbutadiene.
Acknowledgments
By exhibiting small dihedral angles θ around the phenyl-
butadiene essential single bonds, the solid state geometry
suggests that occurrence of conjugation in the styrene parts
is more important than conjugation in the butadiene frag-
ment. The ab initio calculations refine this picture and show
that butadiene conjugation can certainly not be neglected.
This is indicated by the presence of a minimum with an
almost planar butadiene subsystem and large θ and by the
penalty that is paid on breaking the butadiene π-system in
the transition state. According to its structure, 1 should thus
neither be considered as a α,α-bistyryl nor as a 2,3-disubsti-
tuted butadiene. The actual situation lies somewhere in be-
tween. The NBO deletion studies show that this is predomi-
nantly dictated by delocalization effects, and that hypercon-
jugative interactions also play a role.
This work was supported in part (M. L., A. L. S.) by the Neder-
landse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Chemische
Wetenschappen (NWO-CW). R. W. A. H. acknowledges financial
support from Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk On-
derzoek (NWO), grant 700.53.401. The authors thank NWO/NCF
for the use of supercomputer time on TERAS/ASTER, SARA
(project number SG-032).
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Experimental Section
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General: Details of the crystal structure determination can be
found elsewhere.[17]
Computational Methods: Both MP2 and SCF calculations were per-
formed with GAMESS-UK version 7.0,[31] employing the 6-311G*
basis set. The minima were characterized by a Hessian calculation;
no imaginary frequencies were found. NBO deletion studies[24] were
conducted with the NBO module implemented in Gaussian 98[32]
on the SCF/6-311G* geometries taken from the GAMESS outputs.
Cartesian coordinates of MP2/6-311G* calculated minima of 1 are
to be found in the Supporting Information.
Synthesis of 2,3-Diphenyl-1,3-butadiene (1): From the methods
available for the synthesis of 1,[33–35] we chose the double Wittig
reaction of benzil with triphenylmethylphosphonium bromide,[36]
albeit with another solvent. Thus, in a nitrogen atmosphere, a sus-
pension of triphenylmethylphosphonium bromide (37.40 g,
104.7 mmol) in THF (250 mL) was stirred and cooled to 0 °C. In
30 min n-butyllithium in hexanes (66 mL of a 1.6 solution,
4750
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