Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.137, No.7, 2730-2737, 2015
Nucleophilic Intermolecular Chemistry and Reactivity of Dimethylcarbene
Experimental and computational studies find that dimethylcarbene (DMC), the parent dialkylcarbene, is both predicted to be and functions as a very reactive nucleophilic carbene in addition reactions with five simple alkenes. Activation energies and enthalpies for DMC additions to 2-ethyl-1-butene and methyl acrylate are computed and observed to be negative.