Synthesis and structural characterization of cis- and trans-fused 4a,5,6,7,8,8a-hexahydro-2H,4H-1,3-benzodithiines and their 2-methyl and 2,2-dimethyl derivatives.

Both cis- and trans-fused 4a,5,6,7,8,8a-hexahydro-2H,4H-1,3-benzodithiine together with their 2-methyl and 2,2-dimethyl derivatives were prepared as racemates from the appropriate dithiols obtained via multistep syntheses. The products were characterized by (1)H and (13)C NMR, mass spectrometry, and for two of the cis-fused compounds by X-ray diffraction. (1)H,(1)H vicinal coupling constants indicated that all compounds attain chair-chair conformations as their predominant conformations. All three trans-fused isomers exist in totally biased chair-chair conformations and are essentially conformationally locked, whereas the cis-fused compounds are conformationally mobile and can potentially attain either the S-in or the S-out conformation. The interconversion of the conformers is fast on the NMR time-scale at ambient temperatures, but at 213 K 4ar,5,6,7,8,8ac-hexahydro-1,3-benzodithiine freezes out into a 83:17 mixture of the S-in and S-out forms, respectively. Both 2c-methyl-4ar,5,6,7,8,8ac-hexahydro-1,3-dithiine and the dimethyl derivative adopt almost exclusively the S-in conformer at ambient temperature whereas 2t-methyl-4ar,5,6,7,8,8ac-hexahydro-1,3-dithiine is a 5:1 mixture of the S-out and S-in conformers.