Summary
Doubts that have recently been expressed [ l ] about the currently accepted (+ )-(R), (-)-(S)[2] absolute configuration of indane-1-carboxylic acid appear to be unwarranted. Our In the case of indanes the conformational relationship between the aromatic ring and a substituent on the five-membered ring is fairly well-defined'); this makes indanes valuable in areas of research where such relationships matter. As seen in Schemes l a , l b , and 2, indane-1-carboxylic acid (1) occupies a central position, rather like the hub of a wheel, in the pattern of configurational correlations in this series. It is important, then, to attribute neither more, nor less, certainty to the currently accepted configuration (+ )-(R), (-)-(S) [2] for 1 than the available evidence warrants. For this reason we cannot let certain statements made recently in this journal [ 11 stand unchallenged. Specifically, and to quote: 'It is shown unequivocally by chemical correlations and Raman optical activity spectra that the @)-configuration has to be attributed to (+ )-1-methylindane
I )Some flexing of the saturated ring is possible but it seems likely that there is only one conformational energy minimum; the extent of noncoplananty could be a function of the steric requirements of the substituents. Puckering has been explicitly invoked by several workers in efforts to account for chiroptical phenomena that seem difficult to explain otherwise [7] [8] [9] [ 111 [ 151.