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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Isolating Free Carbenes, their Mixed Dimers and Organic Radicals
Published on: April 19, 2019
On the destabilization (strain) energy of biphenylene
1Department of Chemistry, Trinity University, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, Texas 78212, USA. sbachrach@trinity.edu
Abstract:
Biphenylene is subject to a variety of destabilizing effects (antiaromaticity, ring strain) and resonance stabilization. Careful construction of a group equivalent reaction that isolates the destabilization energy from other chemical effects, notably resonance energy, leads to a revised estimate of the destabilization energy of biphenylene as 57 kcal mol(-1). Extension of these ideas to higher homologoues of biphenylene, including starphenylene, point out pitfalls of any approach toward uniquely defining reactions that measure chemical effects.
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