Unravelling the mechanism of force-induced ring-opening of benzocyclobutenes

Ribas-Arino, J.*; Shiga, Motoyuki   ; Marx, D.*

By exploring force-transformed potential energy surfaces of both and 1,2-disubstitutedbenzocyclobutene molecule, we unravel the mechanism of force-induced ring-opening. The expected conrotatory process of reactant leading to , product is only observed at very small forces, whereas disrotatory ring-opening yields , diene at larger forces, which is shown to be a concerted process.