A Nonaromatic thiophene-fused heptalene and its aromatic dianion

Heptalene, a nonaromatic, bicyclic 12 π-electron system with a twisted structure, is of great interest with regard to its potential Hückel aromaticity in the two-electron oxidized or reduced forms. The synthesis of thiophene-fused heptalene 5 from the reductive transannular cyclization of bisdehydro[12]annulene 4, and its solid-state structure, which was confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis, is presented. Chemical reduction of 5 readily generated the corresponding dianion, which was successfully isolated as [(K[2.2.2]cryptand)(+) ]2 5(2-) . The X-ray crystallographic analysis of the dianion revealed a shallower saddle structure for the heptalene moiety and a lesser degree of bond alternation relative to 5. (1) H NMR spectroscopy exposed the effect of a diamagnetic ring current on dianion 5(2-) , which was corroborated by nucleus-independent chemical shift (NICS) calculations. These results demonstrate that the heptalene dianion, containing 14 π-electrons, does indeed exhibit pronounced degrees of Hückel aromaticity.