Thermal isomerizations of protonated bicyclo[3.1.0]hexenones

The thermal isomerization of a wide range of protonated methyl substituted bicyclo[3.1.0]hex-3-en-2-ones to protonated phenols has been examined using triflic acid as a strong acid solvent. The rate constants and activation energies of these isomerizations have been determined. The barriers to the isomerizations were shown to be dependent on the number and position of the methyl substituents. The results show that three different mechanisms are needed to account for these isomerizations, two of which involve a preliminary circumambulatory rearrangement prior to ring opening and the other process involving a direct ring opening of the initial protonated bicyclohexenone to give an intermediate meta-protonated phenol.