Structure and synthesis of the natural heptachloro-1'-methyl-1,2'-bipyrrole (Q1)

Cycloheptatriene is a neutral monocyclic unsaturated hydrocarbon that consists of an odd number of carbon atoms and an intervening sp3 carbon in the ring. The three double bonds in the ring correspond to 6 π electrons, which is a Huckel number, and therefore satisfies the criteria of 4n + 2 π electrons. However, the intervening sp3 carbon disrupts the continuous overlap of p orbitals. As a result, cycloheptatriene is not aromatic.
Removing one hydrogen from the intervening CH2 group with both...

In 1865, August Kekule suggested the structure of benzene according to the structural theory of organic chemistry based on the three assertions—formula of benzene is C6H6, all the hydrogens of benzene are equivalent, and each carbon must have four bonds due to its tetravalency.
He proposed that benzene has a cyclic structure of six carbon atoms attached to one hydrogen atom each, with three alternating pi bonds.

Heterocyclic aromatic compounds are cyclic compounds that are aromatic and have one or more heteroatoms—atoms other than carbon, in the ring. Depending upon the number of atoms present in the ring, they can be either five or six-membered. Examples of five-membered heterocyclic aromatic compounds include pyrrole, furan, thiophene, and imidazole. Pyrrole consists of one nitrogen atom having one lone pair of electrons. Furan and thiophene have one oxygen and one sulfur heteroatom, respectively.

According to the molecular orbital (MO) model, benzene has a planar structure with a regular hexagon of six sp2 hybridized carbons. As shown in Figure 1, each carbon is bonded to three other atoms with C–C–C and H–C–C bond angles of 120°. The C–H bond length is 109 pm, and the C–C bond length is 139 pm which is midway between the single bond length of sp3 hybridized carbons (154 pm) and sp2 hybridized carbons (133 pm).

The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...

Electrocyclic reactions, cycloadditions, and sigmatropic rearrangements are concerted pericyclic reactions that proceed via a cyclic transition state. These reactions are stereospecific and regioselective. The stereochemistry of the products depends on the symmetry characteristics of the interacting orbitals and the reaction conditions. Accordingly, pericyclic reactions are classified as either symmetry-allowed or symmetry-forbidden. Woodward and Hoffmann presented the selection criteria for...