Microwave Spectroscopy of Benzyne

Abstract

Although it had been proposed for several decades as the key transient intermediate in a well studied class of organic reaction, measurement and analysis of the gas-phase microwave absorption spectrum of the extremely reactive species o-benzyne represented a tremendous technical challenge. Initial success came after two decades of sustained technical development in the field of transient species microwave spectroscopy. Two decades later, comparably prodigious advances in microwave spectrometer instrumental sensitivity arising from Fourier transform microwave methods and in new chemical generation methods involving pulsed discharge nozzles have enabled a full isotopic substitution study leading to the determination of a precise molecular structure for gas-phase o-benzyne.