ABSTRAClTo decide whothor the cyclotrimerization of diarylacetylene with diarylacetylene hexacarbonyl dicobalt as catalyst, proceeds via a cyclobutadiene intermediate, two experiments were performed, both relying on the experimentally verified hypothesis that a 3-methoxyphenyl ring can be considered as an ideally chemically labelled phenyl ring t ( 1 ) the co-cyclotrimerization of diphonylacetylene with bis(3-mothoxyphenyl)acetylene, and (2) the cyclotrimerization of l-(3-methoxyphenyl)-2-phenylacetylene.Analysis of the resulting meta methoxy substituted hexaphenylbenzenes using our chemical shift model, is for both experiments conclusive against the involvement of a cyclobutadiene intermediate.