CAAC-Based Thiele and Schlenk Hydrocarbons

Abstract

Diradicals have been of tremendous interest for over a century ever since the first reports of p- and m-phenylene-bridged diphenylmethylradicals in 1904 by Thiele and 1915 by Schlenk. Reported here are the first examples of cyclic(alkyl)(amino)carbene (CAAC) analogues of Thiele´s hydrocarbon, a Kekulé diradical, and Schlenk´s hydrocarbon, a non-Kekulé diradical, without using CAAC as a precursor. The CAAC analogue of Thiele´s hydrocarbon has a singlet ground state, whereas the CAAC analogue of Schlenk´s hydrocarbon contains two unpaired electrons. The latter forms a dimer, by an intermolecular double head-to-tail dimerization. This straightforward synthetic methodology is modular and can be extended for the generation of redox-active organic compounds.