The first representative of highly delocalized triplet carbenes bearing both vinyl and ethynyl groups at the formal carbene center, 5-methylhexa-1,2,4-triene-1,3-diyl, has been generated in a low-temperature Ar matrix upon UV photolysis of 5-ethynyl-3,3-dimethyl-3H-pyrazole and detected by FTIR spectroscopy. The transformation of 3H-pyrazole into the carbene proceeds in two stages via intermediate 3-diazo-5-methylhex-4-en-1-yne. According to DFT PBE/TZ2P calculations, 5-methylhexa-1,2,4-triene-1,3-diyl possesses an effective conjugation along the five-carbon chain and shows the same type of the bond length alternation as the HC(4m+1)H-type polyacetylenic carbenes. The carbene readily reacts with molecular oxygen, producing carbonyl oxides, which undergo further transformations typical of this type of compound upon irradiation in the UV-visible region. Two major photolytic rearrangements of 5-methylhexa-1,2,4-triene-1,3-diyl represent reactions characteristic of vinyl carbenes and resulting in the formation of 1-ethynyl-3,3-dimethylcyclopropene and 3E-2-methylhexa-1,3-dien-5-yne. A minor reaction is that typical of ethynylcarbenes; this leads to the formation of singlet 2-(2-methylpropenyl)cyclopropenylidene. Fragments of singlet and triplet potential energy surfaces of the C(7)H(8) system have been explored in DFT PBE/TZ2P calculations.

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The ESR spectrum of 5-methylhexa-1,2,4-triene-1,3-diyl (1) was recorded in an argon matrix at 15 K. The derived zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameters (D = 0.5054 ± 0.0006 cm(-1) and E = 0.0045 ± 0.0002 cm(-1)) fall between those determined previously for propargylene (2) and vinylcarbene (3). DFT and ab initio (CAS and MRCI) quantum-chemical calculations of the ZFS parameters of 1, 2, and 3 were performed. These calculations indicate that multireference methods are needed to successfully predict ZFS parameters of delocalized carbenes/biradicals such as 1-3. The calculated singly occupied MOs and spin density distributions show that the spin is more delocalized in 1 than in 2 and 3, indicating that 1 is a "hybrid" of the constituent ethynyl- and vinylcarbenes, 2 and 3, respectively. The dominant contribution to the D-value in 1 and 2 is found to result from spin-spin interactions on the C atoms of the propylidene moiety, which is strongly affected by spin polarization. Accurate values for the D-parameter are also predicted for other types of delocalized triplet carbenes such as HC(5)H and HCCN.