Competitive kinetic processes in the thermal rearrangement of 1,1-difluoro-2-(dideuteriomethylene)-cyclopropane

The synthesis of 1,1-difluoro-2-(dideuteriomethylene)-cyclopropane is reported along with the kinetics of its competing, reversible, first order rearrangements: (a) the degenerate rearrangement to 1,1-difluoro-3,3-dideuterio-2-methylene-cyclopropane, and (b) its rearrangement to 2,2-dideuterio-1-(difluoromethylene)-cyclopropane. The observed experimental ratio of these two rate constants, 2.3, is consistent with Borden's theoretically predicted ratio of 3.