December 5'8, 1966 n-Alkyllithium compounds containing from two to ten carbon atoms react under photolytic conditions with anthracene to form 9-alkyl-9, lO-dihydroanthracene. In contrast, methyllithium, vinyllithium, and phenyllithium cause only partial reduction of the hydrocarbon. sec-Butyllithium undregoes the same alkylation step spontaneously. Photolytic alkylation was observed for naphthalene and phenanthrene but not for biphenyl under the ...
