Sulfone-linked paracyclophanes
Abstract
Oxidation of the macrocyclic thioether sulfones (SϕSO2ϕ)n (ϕ = 1,4-phenylene; n = 2 or 3) affords sulfone-linked paracyclophanes (ϕSO2)4 and (ϕSO2)6; single crystal X-ray analysis reveals the tetramer, (ϕSO2)4, to be a near-perfect square box, whilst the hexamer, (ϕSO2)6, adopts a much more irregular conformation; exhaustive oxidation of (SϕSO2ϕ)4, leads not to the expected octamer, (ϕSO2)8, but to the heptasulfone sulfoxide [(ϕSO2)7(ϕSO)].