Kinetics of the addition reaction of sec‐butyllithium onto bis(1‐phenylvinyl)benzenes

Divinylidene compounds such as bis(1‐phenylvinyl)benzenes not being anionically homopolymerizable add sec‐butyllithium (sBuLi) to form biscarbonionic species. The reaction can be treated as a consecutive addition reaction. For 1,3‐bis(1‐phenylvinyl)benzene the rate constants of the first and second addition step of sBuLi are both 1,98 · 10−2 1/(mol · s); for 1,4‐bis(1‐phenylvinyl)benzene the rate constant for the first step is 2,06 · 10−2 1/(mol · s) and that for the second step is 1,51 · 10−3 1/(mol · s) (in toluene as solvent, with an excess of sBuLi at 20°C). The overall activation energy of the individual steps is 60 kJ/mol, the frequency exponent being between 8 and 9.