143958-89-8Relevant academic research and scientific papers
Electron Demand in the Transition State of the Cyclopropylidene to Allene Ring Opening
Warner, Philip,Sutherland, Robert
, p. 6294 - 6300 (1992)
The electronic structure of the transition state for the cyclopropylidene to allene conversion has been probed.The methodology involved the relative rates of ring opening vs trapping by MeOH for a series of variously substituted 2,3-diarylcyclopropylidenes.With the assumption that the rate of trapping was unaffected by substituents, a Hammett correlation was constructed.The negative value (-0.72) for ρ indicated that the carbenic center attracts electron density in the ring-opening transition state, much like the cyclopropyl cation to allyl cation transition state.Temperature-dependent studies showed that the observed preference for ring opening was driven by entropy factors.Also, using reasonable estimates for the close to diffusion-controlled trapping activation enthalpies, the derived enthalpies for ring opening were in close agreement with the best theoretical values.
