Our interest in the preparation of cyclopentadienes and their anions arose from a desire to study the conformational effects of sterically demanding groups in organometallic complexes containing vicinally disubstituted cyclopentadienyl ligands. 1, 2 As a result, we developed the route to 1, 5-di-tert-butyl-1, 3-cyclopentadiene (1a) from diketone 2 via diol 3, as shown in Scheme 1. 1 Isomer 1a was identified as the principal valence tautomer in solution, ...
