Chemists have always been fascinated by the cumulated diene system of allenes with its extraordinary properties such as the axial chirality of the elongated tetrahedron and a higher reactivity than non-cumulated C-C double bonds. The equilibrium geometry for an allene is linear with orthogonal pairs of substituents. An allene incorporated into a carbocyclic ring of nine or more carbon atoms is relatively unstrained. However, if the ring size is decreased, the linear perpendicular allene will be twisted and bent until, at some point, the energy gained by pi bonding in the two double bonds will be insufficient to offset the increased strain. Furthermore, ring constraints will exert torsion toward a planar arrangement of ligands. Therefore, one of the fundemantal questions is the influence of ring size on the barrier to pi bond rotation. Herein we wish to unveil a review of our research related to desperately seeking for five membered ring allenes such as, cyclopenta-1,2-diene (1) and some of its derivatives, e.g. 2, and 3. Furthermore, we will address a simple, mild and efficient method for the reduction of 1,4-benzoquinones 4 to corresponding hydroquinones 5.

The synthesis of cyclic allenes with eight or less skeletal C-atoms, known as highly strained organic compounds, has for the past decades attracted increasing interest. The first part of study describes an investigation aimed at the incorporation of an allene unit into a natural compound, being &amp / #945 / -pinene, by using &amp / #946 / -elimination method. The two double-bond isomers 310 and 299b were synthesized as key compounds. Treatment of 310 with t-BuOK resulted in the formation of ketone 308 and diene 313. For the formation of 308, the cyclic allene 300 was proposed as an intermediate. Treatment of 299b, with t-BuOK gave arise to the diene 313 and the dimerization product 322. On the basis of density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations on the allene 300 and the alkyne 320, the formation of the latter as the intermediate was excluded. In the second part of study, the stability of endo-carbene 304 was investigated. Previous studies indicated, during the formation of intermediate 264, no exo-carbene 330 structure could be optimized in its free carbene form. At this point, we were curious about the stability of endo-cyclopropylidene 304 not discussed before in literature. First, addition of bromofluorocarbene to anti-7-ethylbenzonorbornadiene (352) was aimed to isolate the endo-adduct 302b. However, no carbene addition reaction was observed caused by pyramidalization on double bond respect to the methoxy derivative, 363b. Therefore, the bromine was introduced to C-7 carbon atom. Treatment of 302a with MeLi in the presence of furan, gave furan adduct 306a confirmed the formation of allene 305a as a reactive intermediate. Theoretical calculations showed endo-carbene 304a was optimized in the free carbene form . However, it readily isomerizes to allene 305a afforded furan adduct 306a.

The first part of study describes an investigation aimed at the incorporation of an allene unit into a natural compound, being alpha-pinene, by using Doering-Moore-Skatteboel method. DFT computations show that both allene product and insertion product can be isolated if the reaction of methyllithium with 3,3-dibromo-2,7,7-trimethyl-tricyclo[4.1.1.02,4]octane is carried out at either low or high temperatures. One insertion product resulting from the intramolecular C-H insertion at the bridge and three allene dimers were isolated when this reaction was carried out at room temperature. In the second part of study, exo- and endo-cyclopropylidene incorporated into benzonorbornadiene were investigated by using theoretical and experimental methods. Theoretical calculations show that the endo-carbene would be stable and undergo some kind of insertion and addition reactions. On the contrary, the exo-carbene is not stable and isomerizes to the corresponding allene structure during the optimization process. For this purpose, the reaction of dibromocarbene and dichlorocarbene with 7-methoxybenzonorbornadiene was achieved to afford gem-dibromocyclopropane and gem-dichlorocyclopropane adducts, respectively. However, they suffer stereoelectronically-controlled ring opening under the reaction conditions to give the ring-expanded allylic dihalides, respectively. On the other hand, gem-bromofluorocyclopropane, obtained by the treatment of 7-methoxybenzonorbornadiene with bromofluorocarbene, provided one of the four possible [2+4] allene adducts upon treatment with MeLi in furan. The exact structure of the adduct has been elucidated on the basis of NMR spectral data. This result confirms the formation of the bicyclic allene as an reactive intermediate. No products were isolated derived from the endo-carbene.