New Small-Ring Compounds

In the last twenty years, organic chemical theory has progressed to the point of being indispensable to the planning of practical syntheses. Nonetheless, experiment still often runs ahead of theory with such unanticipated discoveries as the stable cyclopentadienyl-transition metal complexes, the Reppe cyclooctatetraene synthesis, transannular-hydrogen migrations, and the unusual rearrangements observed in nucleophilic aromatic substitution. The present discussion is concerned with some much less generally significant but perhaps equally unanticipated findings in connection with the chemistry of small-ring compounds.