cyclooctatetraene
1,3,5,7-Cyclooctatetraene (COT) is an unsaturated derivative of cyclooctane. It is a colorless flammable liquid at room temperature. COT is an antiaromatic compound as it possesses 8 π electrons. In contrast to the aromaticity commonly seen in benzene rings; antiaromaticity destabilises the COT molecule. This destabilisation effect is so strong that COT avoids it by adopting a non-planar 'tub' conformation, which prevents all of the π orbitals from forming a single conjugated system. As a result, COT possesses significant polyene character and will undergo many reactions that benzene rings wil
Article
9 sectionsContents
- History
- Structure and bonding
- Synthesis
- Derivatives
- Natural occurrence
- Reactions
- Cyclooctatetraenide as a ligand and ligand precursor
- See also
- References
1,3,5,7-Cyclooctatetraene (COT) is an unsaturated derivative of cyclooctane. It is a colorless flammable liquid at room temperature. COT is an antiaromatic compound as it possesses 8 π electrons. In contrast to the aromaticity commonly seen in benzene rings; antiaromaticity destabilises the COT molecule. This destabilisation effect is so strong that COT avoids it by adopting a non-planar 'tub' conformation, which prevents all of the π orbitals from forming a single conjugated system. As a result, COT possesses significant polyene character and will undergo many reactions that benzene rings will not. This been the subject of much research and historically some controversy.
==History== 1,3,5,7-Cyclooctatetraene was initially synthesized by Richard Willstätter in Munich in 1905 using pseudopelletierine as the starting material and the Hofmann elimination as the key transformation: class=skin-invert-image|450px|Willstätter's synthesis of cyclooctatetraene (1905).