Antimony halides as solvents. Part IX. The dimerisation of trans-stilbene in molten antimony trichloride

Abstract

trans-Stilbene forms a mixture of three cyclic dimers in molten antimony trichloride. One of these has an indane structure, and the other two are isomeric tetralin derivatives. The conformations of these products, and of two further isomers of the indane dimer prepared by other methods, have been assigned from their 100 or 220 MHz n.m.r. spectra. A fourth indane ‘isomer’, reported by previous workers, is actually a tetraphenylbutane.