Cubanes: Starting Materials for the Chemistry of the 1990s and the New Century

Abstract The study of non‐natural products has led to a broad understanding of bonding and reactivity in organic chemistry. Many times, compounds thought impossible have been realized in the course of such studies. Cubane, a landmark in the world of “impossible” compounds, has been found to have a rich chemistry, full of the unexpected. The recent renaissance of cubane chemistry, triggered by potential applications of the system to the production of high‐energy fuels and the like, has led to many discoveries including the first methods for systematic substitution on strained, saturated systems and a new process for the metalation of arenes, ortho magnesiation. Reactive intermediates with exceptional bonding parameters have been uncovered and characterized including 1(9)‐homocubene, the most twisted olefin; cubene, the most pyramidalized olefin; cubyl cation, once the “least likely” cation; cubylmethyl radical, a saturated radical that rearranges on the picosecond timescale; and many other extraordinary species. There is certainly good reason to believe that future work in the cubane arena will be at least as productive (probably more so), and that it will help develop a deeper understanding of chemistry.