The pyrolysis of isoxazole revisited: a new primary product and the pivotal role of the vinylnitrene. A low-temperature matrix isolation and computational study.

This paper describes the pyrolysis of parent isoxazole and of its 5-methyl and 3,5-dimethyl derivatives by the high-pressure pulsed pyrolysis method, where activation of the precursor molecules occurs predominantly by collisions with the host gas (Ar in our case), rather than with the walls of the pyrolysis tube, where catalyzed processes may occur. The products were trapped at 15 K in Ar matrices and were characterized by vibrational spectroscopy. Thereby, hitherto unobserved primary products of pyrolysis of isoxazole and of its 5-methyl derivative, 3-hydroxypropenenitrile or 3-hydroxybutenenitrile, respectively, were observed. E-Z photoisomerization could be induced in the above hydroxynitriles. On pyrolysis of isoxazole, ketenimine and CO were observed as decomposition products, but this process did not occur when the 5-methyl derivative was pyrolyzed. Instead, the corresponding ketonitrile was formed. In the case of 3,5-dimethylisoxazole, 2-acetyl-3-methyl-2H-azirine was detected at moderate pyrolysis temperatures, whereas at higher temperatures, 2,5-dimethyloxazole was the only observed rearrangement product (next to products of dissociation). These findings are rationalized on the basis of quantum chemical calculations. Thereby it becomes evident that carbonyl-vinylnitrenes play a pivotal role in the observed rearrangements, a role that had not been recognized in previous theoretical studies because it had been assumed that vinylnitrenes are closed-shell singlet species, whereas they are in fact open-shell singlet biradicaloids. Thus, the primary processes had to be modeled by the multiconfigurational CASSCF method, followed by single-point MR-CISD calculations. The picture that emerges from these calculations is in excellent accord with the experimental findings; that is, they explain why some possible products are observed while others are not.