Oxirene is a heterocyclic chemical compound which contains an unsaturated three-membered ring containing two carbon atoms and one oxygen atom. The molecule was synthesized in low temperature ices and detected upon sublimation by isomer selective photoionization reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometry.[2]
Quantum chemical computational techniques found the configuration to be extremely strained and proposed an antiaromatic 4π electron system, as such oxirene is expected to be very high energy.[3][4]
Experimental indications exist that substituted oxirenes (as intermediates or transition states) may be involved in carbonylcarbene rearrangements observed in the Wolff rearrangement.[5] Computational evidence also point to the intermediacy of oxirenes in the ozonolysis of alkynes.[6]
^Mawhinney, Robert C; Goddard, John D (2003). "Assessment of density functional theory for the prediction of the nature of the oxirene stationary point". Journal of Molecular Structure: THEOCHEM. 629 (1–3): 263–270. doi:10.1016/S0166-1280(03)00198-2.
^Lewars, Errol G. (2011). Computational Chemistry - Introduction to the Theory and Applications of Molecular and Quantum Mechanics (2nd ed.). Springer. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-3862-3. ISBN978-90-481-3862-3.
^Cremer, Dieter; Crehuet, Ramon; Anglada, Josep (June 2001). "The Ozonolysis of AcetyleneA Quantum Chemical Investigation". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 123 (25): 6127–6141. doi:10.1021/ja010166f. ISSN0002-7863. PMID11414847.