Duality of Reactivity of a Biradicaloid Compound with an o-Quinodimethane Scaffold

Sigmarene, which is a Kekulé hydrocarbon with appreciable singlet biradical character originating from an o-quinodimethane scaffold, is isolated as a doubly σ-bonded dimer. The dimer dissociates into a monomeric sigmarene upon heating or photoirradiation. The monomeric species undergoes a rapid [4 + 4] cycloaddition reaction under dark conditions even at room temperature to produce the dimer. Contrarily, the monomeric sigmarene undergoes a [4 + 2] cycloaddition reaction in the presence of dienophile as an orbital symmetry allowed process. Therefore, the sigmarene shows high reactivity for both symmetry-forbidden and allowed processes in the framework of the orbital symmetry rule. This duality of reactivity of the sigmarene is consistent with the intermediate singlet biradical character (44%) estimated by a density functional theory (DFT) calculation.