Dehydration of (Perfluoroalkyl)tetramethylcyclopentenols

Abstract: (Perfluoroalkyl) tetramethylcyclopentenols (alkyl = n-butyl, n-hexyl, n-octyl) were dehydrated to a complex mixture of endo, endo-(perfluoroalkyl) tetramethyl-cyclopentadienes and their endo-, exo-isomers. It was found in preliminary screening experiments that the best reagent for this transformation, giving an 89% yield of isomeric product mixture, was P₂O₅ in benzene at 80-90 °C. Products were characterized on the basis of their mass spectra and retention time information, and some peaks in the mass spectra were identified from their molecular fragments. Structures were assigned to the three most abundant products of (perfluorohexyl)tetramethylcyclopentenol dehydration. Formal dehydration kinetics showed a second order reaction in benzene but zeroth order with induction period in chlorobenzene, suggesting mass transfer limitations in the more polar chlorobenzene. Some of the products were formed by consecutive isomerization of the others, as shown by the kinetic analysis.