Container Systems II: An Experimental Study of the High‐Pressure Intramolecular Cycloaddition of Tethered Furans and Anthracenes onto Norbornane Cyclobutene‐1,2‐diesters

Abstract

A new class of container molecules is described and the first steps in producing protypes are reported. Central to the approach is the formation of polynorbornanes with cyclobutene‐1,2‐difurfuryl esters at the terminus or similar functionality at the bridgehead of a central norbornane subunit. The synthesis of the furfuryl starting materials is described as well as their anthracenyl counterparts. Conversion to the container systems involved the intermolecular linking of the furfuryl or anthracene by treatment with dimethyl acetylene dicarboxylate (DMAD) in a Diels–Alder (DA) protocol under thermal or high‐pressure (HP) conditions. In practice, no intermolecular linking occurred between the norbornane substrates and only products from DA 1:1‐addition with DMAD were produced. Intramolecular addition of one of the furfuryl units onto the cyclobutene π‐bond was detected under HP conditions, and this intermolecular product was capable of isolation and characterization by working at room temperature or below, but reverted to starting material above room temperature. When conducted in the presence of DMAD, a single 1:1‐adduct was obtained in which one furfuryl moiety was intramolecularly cyclized and the other present as the DMAD adduct; again this product underwent retro‐DA reaction at 40°C. Similar intermolecular cyclization was observed with the bis‐anthracenyl esters. The stereoselectivity of the intermolecular attack of the furfuryl diene with the dienophilic cyclobutene gave a single adduct by endo‐face attack in which the oxa‐bridge is endo‐positioned. Quantum chemical DFT calculations (B3LYP) predict that the formation of the endo‐isomer is kinetically favored and that relief of ring strain enhances the rate of retro‐Diels–Alder in the tethered system.