After Gustavson produced cyclopropane by reacting 1,3-dibromopropane with ground-up zinc metal, he tried the same reaction with 2,2-bis(bromomethyl)-1,3-dibromopropane (see formula scheme).

[9] Further evidence for the structure of the hydrocarbon comes from the fact that it could also be obtained from 1,1-bis(bromomethyl)-cyclopropane (see formula scheme).

[10] Spiropentane is difficult to separate from the other reaction products and the early procedures resulted in impure mixtures.

[12] When heating molecules of spiropentane labelled with deuterium atoms, a topomerization or "stereomutation" reaction is observed, similar to that of cyclopropane: cis-1,2-dideuteriospiropentane equilibrates with trans-1,2-dideuteriospiropentane.

A thermolysis in the gas phase from 360 to 410 °C resulted in ring expansion to the constitutional isomer methylenecyclobutane, along with the fragmentation products ethene and propadiene.