Towards the synthesis of monocyclic carbon clusters: [2+2] cycloreversion of propellane annelated dehydroannulenes

Abstract
We have synthesized the propellane-annelated hexadehydro(l2)-, octadehydro( 161-. dodecadehydro( 181-. decadehydro(20)-, and hexadecadehydro- (24)annulenes which serve as stable precursors of monocyclic carbon clusters C12, C16. C18, (220. and C24. respectively.