Higher Aliphatic Aldehyde Polymers. V. Cyclic Trimers of C9 to C12, Normal Aliphatic Aldehydes

Cyclic trimers of n-nonaldehyde (NA), n-decaldehyde (DA), n-undecaldehyde, (UA) and n-dodecaldehyde (DDA) were prepared by reacting the individual aldehydes with protic or Lewis acids. Higher aliphatic aldehydes whose long paraffinic chains dominate the general properties of these compounds do not trimerize readily the trimers, when formed, are purified with difficulty. The cyclic trimers, characterized by IR and NMR spectroscopy, are exclusively the cis isomers and commonly exist in all equatorial conformations. The melting behavior of the cyclic trimers was studied by DSC. The melting endotherms and the enthalpies of fusion increase with increasing chain length. Although the melting temperatures of the cyclic trimers are similar to the melting range of the side-chain crystallization of the corresponding crystalline isotactic polyaldehydes, the transition peaks of the trimers are single peaks and much sharper than the corresponding polymer peaks.