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World desk2 min

Tetravinylallene: Synthesis of a Possibly Record-Setting Hydrocarbon

Tetravinylallene is an 11-carbon hydrocarbon with six double bonds. Its first reported synthesis and ring-forming reactions drew interest, but the compound is unstable in air and as a neat liquid.
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Tetravinylallene is an acyclic hydrocarbon reported to contain 11 carbon atoms and six double bonds. A 2019 report described its first synthesis in six steps, while cautiously calling it a compound that “might be the most double-bond-rich acyclic hydrocarbon ever synthesised.” Its significance is not simply the number of double bonds: it can take part in reaction sequences that rapidly assemble complex, stereochemically rich ring systems.

What is tetravinylallene?

Tetravinylallene is an acyclic hydrocarbon: a molecule made only of carbon and hydrogen that does not form a ring. Chemistry World’s 2019 account describes it as having 11 carbon atoms and six double bonds. The name reflects its allene-based structure. An allene contains two adjacent double bonds that share a central carbon atom.

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The “most” in the record claim needs qualification. The report said tetravinylallene might be the most double-bond-rich acyclic hydrocarbon ever synthesised; it did not present the claim as an unqualified, independently verified record. Chemistry World’s account was published on 23 August 2019.

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How was it made?

C. Elgindy, J. S. Ward and M. S. Sherburn reported a six-step synthesis in 2019. Chemistry World noted that extensive experimentation was needed to establish suitable conditions, but its report does not give the reaction conditions or yields. Those details should not be inferred from the step count alone. The work was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2019), DOI 10.1002/anie.201908496.

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Why does the molecule matter to synthetic chemistry?

Its appeal is the opportunity to build molecular complexity through successive pericyclic reactions: concerted reactions that reorganize bonds in a cyclic pattern. Multiple reactive double bonds can participate in sequences that turn a relatively compact starting material into a structure with several rings.

In a reported two-step sequence involving tetravinylallene, four pericyclic reactions produced four rings, seven carbon–carbon bonds, and nine stereocentres. Stereocentres are atoms at which different three-dimensional arrangements are possible; creating many of them in a short sequence is one reason such cascades interest synthetic chemists.

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Is tetravinylallene stable?

No, not under the conditions described in the report. It was reported to be unstable in air and when stored as a neat liquid—that is, without being dissolved in another substance. This limits any suggestion that it is a stable material that can be routinely stored or handled. The account does not specify a storage protocol or quantify how quickly it decomposes.

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How does it fit into earlier allene chemistry?

The broader strategy of using allenes to make rings predates tetravinylallene. Chemistry World points to 1,1-divinylallene as a building block used in a synthesis of the marine natural product pseudopterosin. That route was described as reducing the step count from 20 to 11. This is background on divinylallene, not a result of the tetravinylallene synthesis.

The same report mentions divinylallene and dendralene in the context of forming multi-ring structures, but it supplies no quantitative head-to-head comparison. The demonstrated distinction for tetravinylallene is the reported cascade outcome: four rings and nine stereocentres formed through four pericyclic reactions over two steps.

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