6 7 was formed in about 30% yield, and there was less than 5% each of methylcubane and cubane. The bicubyls, important compounds in their own right, are formed from intermediate cubyllithiums adding to cubane-1, 4-diyl (Scheme l). lo This bypath could be suppressed by adding methyl iodide to the reaction. When excess methyllithium was added to a suspension of 1, 4-diiodocubane in ether containing 10 equiv of methyl iodide, the reaction was much ...
