Participation of Non-Conjugated Double Bonds in Diels-Alder Reactions. A kinetic study of the addition of tropone to norbornens

A kinetic study of Diels-Alder additions between norbornene derivatives acting as dienophiles and the dienes tropone, perchlorocyclopentadiene and 9,10-dimethylanthracene is presented. The results suggest that tropone thereby acts as an electron acceptor, classifying these reactions then as Diels-Alder additions with ‘inverse electron demand’. The role of non-reacting double bonds was investigated using 7-alkylidenorbornene derivatives as dienophiles. These show comparable reactivity in ‘normal’ but enhanced reactivity in ‘inverse electron demand’ Diels-Alder additions. This outcome is interpreted in terms of frontier orbital interactions between the reactants using photoelectron spectroscopical results as a basis for the qualitative perturbation treatment. It is suggested that the enhanced reactivity in the case of the 7-alkylidene derivatives does not necessitate the consideration of a direct (‘through-space’) participation of the non-reacting double bond.