Tetraphenyldihydrocyclobutaarenes—what causes the extremely long 1.72 Å C–C single bond?
Abstract
The exceptional 0.19 Å lengthening (to 1.720 vs. 1.53 Å in ethane) of the Csp3–Csp3 bond in tetraphenyldihydrocyclobutaarenes is attributed to a combination of cyclobutene ring strain (0.04 Å), through-bond coupling (0.08 Å) and steric repulsion (0.07 Å) by comparison with model systems.