The manifestations of the retro-Diels Alder reaction in the ground-state structures of a range of cyclopentadiene and cyclohexadiene cycloadducts 9-15 have been investigated by a combination of techniques. These include low-temperature X-ray crystallography, density functional calculations (B3LYP/6-31G(d,p)) on both the ground states and transition states, and the measurement of (13)C-(13)C coupling constants. We have found that the carbon-carbon bonds (labeled bonds a and b), which break in the rDA, are longer in the cycloadducts 9-15 than in their corresponding saturated analogues 9s-15s, which cannot undergo the rDA reaction. The degree of carbon-carbon bond lengthening appears to be related to the reactivity of the cycloadduct, thus the more reactive benzoquinone cycloadducts 5b and 13 have longer carbon-carbon bonds. Those cycloadducts 14 and 15 which are predicted to undergo asynchronous reactions show differing degrees of carbon-carbon bond lengthening, reflecting the differing degrees of bond breaking at the calculated transition states for the rDA.

Isobromotopsentin (16) is a new brominated bis(indole) alkaloid isolated from a deep-water marine sponge Spongosorites sp. collected off the southern Australian coast. The structure for (16) was determined by spectroscopic methods.

The Alder-Rickert ethylene extrusion reaction manifests in the ground state structures of compounds 9-12 which contain the bicyclo[2.2.2]octadiene moiety and compounds 13, 14, and 17-20 which contain the bicyclo[2.2.2]octene moiety. A significant decrease of the 13C-13C one-bond coupling constants for the C-C bonds, which break in this fragmentation reaction, suggests lengthening, and hence weakening of these bonds. In the unsymmetrical systems these effects are also shown to be associated with strengthening of the CH2-CH2 bond, which is ultimately lost from the molecule as ethylene. Low-temperature crystal structures of compounds 9-12 and 16 provide evidence for similar crystal packing requirements of the CH2-CH2 and CH=CH moieties.

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