Benzocyclobutadiene is the simplest
polycyclic hydrocarbon
A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. P ...
, being composed of an aromatic
benzene
Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms, ...
ring fused to an anti-aromatic
cyclobutadiene
Cyclobutadiene is an organic compound with the formula . It is very reactive owing to its tendency to dimerize. Although the parent compound has not been isolated, some substituted derivatives are robust and a single molecule of cyclobutadiene is ...
ring. It has
chemical formula
In chemistry, a chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, ...
. Though the benzene ring is stabilized by
aromaticity
In chemistry, aromaticity is a chemical property of cyclic ( ring-shaped), ''typically'' planar (flat) molecular structures with pi bonds in resonance (those containing delocalized electrons) that gives increased stability compared to saturate ...
, the cyclobutadiene portion has a destabilizing effect. This results into it being a non-aromatic compound - neither behaving as aromatic nor an antiaromatic one. For this reason, benzocyclobutadiene will readily
dimerize
A dimer () ('' di-'', "two" + ''-mer'', "parts") is an oligomer consisting of two monomers joined by bonds that can be either strong or weak, covalent or intermolecular. Dimers also have significant implications in polymer chemistry, inorganic ch ...
or
polymerize
In polymer chemistry, polymerization (American English), or polymerisation (British English), is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are many for ...
and it reacts as a
dienophile in
Diels-Alder reactions.
Benzocyclobutadiene is used in the production of the pharmaceutical drug
naflocort.
See also
*
Pentalene
Pentalene is a polycyclic hydrocarbon composed of two fused cyclopentadiene rings. It has chemical formula . It is antiaromatic, because it has 4''n'' π electrons where ''n'' is any integer. For this reason it dimerizes even at temperatures as ...
References
{{reflist
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Bicyclic compounds
Four-membered rings