Université de Fribourg

Regioselective oxidative ring opening of cyclopropyl silyl ethers: a quantum chemical study

Rinderhagen, Heiko ; Mattay, Jochen ; Nussbaum, Rafael ; Bally, Thomas

In: Chemistry, a European Journal, 2010, vol. 16, no. 24, p. 7121–7124

In contrast to the structurally and configurationally stable alkyl- or aryl-substituted cyclopropyl radical cations, cyclopropyl silyl ethers undergo spontaneous ring opening upon oxidation whereby the endocyclic C-C(O-TMS) bond is cleaved with remarkable selectivity. DFT calculations on 1-trimethylsilyloxybicyclo[4.1.0]heptane show that this selectivity arises from the topology of the potential...

Université de Fribourg

Experimental and theoretical study of 2,6-difluorophenylnitrene, its radical cation, and their rearrangement products in argon matrices

Carra, Claudio ; Nussbaum, Rafael ; Bally, Thomas

In: ChemPhysChem, 2006, vol. 7(6), p. 1268-1275

2,6-Difluorophenylnitrene was reinvestigated both experimentally, in Ar matrices at 10 K, and computationally, by DFT and CASSCF/CASPT2 calculations. Almost-pure samples of both neutral rearrangement products (the bicyclic azirine and the cyclic ketenimine) of a phenylnitrene were prepared and characterized for the first time. These samples were then subjected to X-irradiation in the presence of...