A novel family of atropisomers based on a conformationally constrained seven membered ring system is investigated using a combination of preparative chiral chromatography, circular dichroism, and other analytical techniques. The influence of structure on the rate of atropisomer interconversion was explored with a series of analogs showing a range of interconversion rates ranging from very fast (undetectable on the HPLC timescale) to very slow (half life of many days).
(c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.