ABSTRACT
Organic chemists have been concerned for over 100 years with the question of how many carbonyl groups may be juxtaposed and what will be the properties of the resulting vicinal polycarbonyl compounds. At the present time, the number of vicinal carbonyl groups has reached a maximum of five in compounds such as diphenyl pentaketone (1,5-diphenylpentanepentone,
); use of the term
vicinal oligocarbonyl compounds
might be more appropriate but is not accepted usage. Reviews on the chemistry of these compounds appeared in 1975
and 2000.
