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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Accessing Valuable Ligand Supports for Transition Metals: A Modified, Intermediate Scale Preparation of 1,2,3,4,5-Pentamethylcyclopentadiene
Published on: March 20, 2017
Experimental support for planar pseudopericyclic transition states in thermal cheletropic decarbonylations
Han-Xun Wei1, Chun Zhou, Sihyun Ham
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79401-1061, USA.
Abstract:
Low-temperature crystal structures of three pyrrolediones (3-5) and a furandione (9) were obtained and compared to structurally related compounds that cannot undergo decarbonylation. Systematic trends in bond lengths and angles are consistent with distortions along the reaction coordinate, in accord with the structure correlation principle of Dunitz. Since the pyrroledione and furandione rings in 3-5 and 9 are planar, these ground-state geometries prefigure the calculated planar, pseudopericyclic transition states.
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