And one more ignorant's question...
How difficult is it to cyclopropanate several double bonds?
The intent is, as usual to produce a rocket fuel, or rocket propellant, with a high energy contents.
In hundreds and thousands of tons, without putting the workers at risk meanwhile, and for cheap - of course.
Such a propellant was used on Soyuz, it was called Syntin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntinbut was abandoned.
Now I realize that cheap myrcene, obtained from turpentine, would lead to a similar molecule with three cyclopropane rings... But though I have no intuition for chemistry, my little finger tells me that the difficult part isn't the polyene molecule but its transformation into a string of strained rings.
What I've read is called the Simmons-Smith reaction:
http://www.organic-chemistry.org/namedreactions/simmons-smith-reaction.shtmPicture of myrcene:
http://saposjoint.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=2609#p30260of the polycyclic product:
http://saposjoint.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=2609#p30264(=same thread, two messages lower. See Syntin at the same place)
Thank you!
Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy