Tetracyanoethylene pi-complex chemistry. Indirect spectrophotometric determination of Diels-Alder-active 1,3-dienes.

An indirect spectrophotometric method, based on the rapid Diels-Alder reaction between cisoid 1,3-dienes and tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) and the destruction of an aromatic-TCNE pi-complex, was developed to determine eleven 1,3-dienes in the 0.05-1.00 x 10(-3)M range. These dienes were: cyclopentadiene; 1,3-cyclohexadiene; trans-1,3-pentadiene; 2,4-dimethyl-1,3-pentadiene; trans-2-methyl-1,3-pentadiene; 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene; 9-methylanthracene; 9,10-dimethylanthracene; 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene; 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene; and 1,4-diphenyl-1,3-butadiene. Three 1,3-dienes were determined in the 0.05-1 x 10(-4)M range: cyclopentadiene, trans-2-methyl-1,3-pentadiene, and anthracene. The limit of detection for cyclopentadiene in carbon tetrachloride solutions is 0.11 microg/ml. Fourteen 1,3-dienes were found to form stable pi-complexes and could not be determined by the proposed method. For these 1,3-dienes, the spectra of some of the complexes are reported; in addition, relative equilibrium constants for the pi-complexes of 2,5-dimethyl-2,4-hexadiene, cis-1,3-pentadiene, 4-methyl-1,3-pentadiene, and 1,3-cyclo-octadiene were estimated. An explanation of the transient colour in the 1,3-diene-TCNE Diels-Alder reaction is suggested.