“…The following precursors were prepared according to the literature: triphenylvinyl bromide (3), [2b,22] tris(panisyl)vinyl bromide (18), [23] 1,1-bis(p-anisyl)-2,2-dibromoethene (20), [24] 1,1-bis(p-anisyl)-2,2-dichloroethene (23), [25] 1,1-dibromo-2,2-diphenylethene (25). [26] (E,Z)-1-Bromo-2-phenylpropene (10): Bromination [2b,27] of commercial (Aldrich) α-methylstyrene (2.05 mL, 15.8 mmol), dissolved in CCl 4 (10 mL), with a solution of Br 2 (1 mL, 19.5 mmol) in 20 mL of CCl 4 for 18 h, followed by dehydrobromination [2b] of the dibromo derivative with KOH powder (2.68 g, 40.9 mmol) and 18-crown-6 (35 mg, 0.13 mmol) in boiling hexane (40 mL) for 36 h, gave a brown liquid, which was distilled (bp 104Ϫ108°C at 28 Torr) to give 0.6 g (19%) of a 92:8 (E)/(Z) mixture of pure 10 as an oil: 1 H NMR: δ ϭ 7.4Ϫ7.2 (m, 5 H, Ph), 6 General Procedure for Irradiation Reactions: Under a stream of argon, the substrate (0.2 mmol) was added to a solution of the parent acid of the anion (0.7 mmol) and sublimed tBuOK (0.8 mmol) in 5 mL of Me 2 SO.…”