The Structure of Polyisoprenes. IV. Double-Bond Interaction in Certain Carbalkoxy-Substituted 1,5-Dienes
Abstract A peculiar lack of olefinic reactivity, combined with a facility for cyclization of methyl and ethyl Δ1,5-hexadiene-1, 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, 6, 6-octacarboxylates, has been attributed by Ingold, Parekh, and Shoppee to ring-chain mesomerism. A reinvestigation of these and related compounds has now been made by using x-ray methods, and it is shown that the crystal structure of the methyl ester is incompatible with the cis-configuration required for such interspatial double-bond saturation. A radical disruption of a mesomeric system by crystallization from solution is improbable and, an earlier formulation incorporating a bicyclobutane nucleus being rejected on chemical grounds, it is necessary to seek a new interpretation of the anomalous reactivity. We suggest that the determinative condition is hyperconjugation throughout the carbon framework of the molecule, and discuss this in relation to 1,5-dienes generally.