Owing to the rigidity of the naphthalene skeleton, these substituents on the 1- and 8-positions are constrained to be relatively close 2.5 Å, which is within the van der Waals radius for many atoms.
In contrast, ortho-substituents pendant from a benzene ring are separated by about 3.3 Å.
Other distinctive compounds include the diphosphine 1,8-bis(diphenylphosphino)naphthalene (dppn) and the disulfide, both of which are ligand precursors.
Dinitration of naphthalene gives 1,8-dinitronaphthalene, which undergoes hydrogenation to the diamine.
[3] Certain perinaphthalene derivatives can be prepared from 1,8-dilithionaphthalene, which in turn is generated by dilithiation of 1-bromonaphthalene:[4] The deprotonation requires TMEDA.