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Syntheses and the Structures of Polymethylpolycyclic and Polycyclic "Cage" Molecules
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The structures of Diels-Alder cycloaddition of cyclopentadiene to 2,6-dimethyl-p-benzoquinone and methylcyclopentadiene to 2,6-dimethyl-p-benzoquinone were assigned by analysis of 1-D and 2-D proton and carbon-13 NMR spectra. The structures of the cycloadduct of methylcyclopentadiene to 2,6-dimethyl-p-benzoquinone and that of the corresponding intramolecular [2+2] photocyclization product were also obtained by single crystal X-ray structural analysis. As the second part of the study, a new polycyclic "cage" molecule, a substituted trishomocubane isomer, was synthesized. In this synthesis, reductive bond cleavage followed by Dieckmann condensation was employed. Wolff-Kishner reduction then was used to convert a β-keto ester "cage" molecule to the corresponding carboxylic acid. A compound that possesses twofold symmetry was isolated from reaction product mixture. The structure of this compound has been established by single crystal X-ray crystallography.