Bicyclo[2.2.1]hepta-2,5-diene or norbornadiene (NBD) is a bicyclic hydrocarbon molecule used in many fields of chemistry since its first synthesis in 1950. NBD is the precursor of Aldrin, an agrochemical that was commonly used as an insecticide until the end of the XX century. Norbornadiene is capable of interconverting into its isomer, quadricyclane (QC), by the incidence of ultraviolet light. After that, the QC can release heat to return to the initial stage of NBD. To increase the energy efficiency and to enable the reaction to occur at the solar light, chemists have synthesized a wide variety of NBD derivatives. Papers in more than seventy years have studied and reported the physical and chemical properties of those compounds and their applications as rocket fuel, solar energy cell, homogeneous catalysis, and agrochemicals published between 1950 and 2021. Even computational chemistry has been used to investigate the NBD derivatives synthetic routes, elucidation, and application. In addition, this review describes other applications of norbornadiene.

Nematode is a major problem in agriculture, the effective way to control this pest is through chemical control, but the efficient molecules present in the market have great toxicity to mammals and birds. Thus, there is a constant demand for the development of new nematicide molecules. This study describes the synthesis of 21 novel esters derived from norbornadiene and evaluation of their potential activity against Meloidogyne javanica. The esters 5-25 presented 50% mortality of the nematodes. The acid 3 and the ester 4 caused 96 and 93% mortality of the nematodes, respectively. The lethal concentration to kill 50% of the nematodes (LD50) were determined as being 11.8 µg mL-1 for the acid 3 and 99.4 µg mL-1 for the ester 4. According to the results obtained it is believed that polarity seems to be a key factor for the higher activity of compound 3 compared to structurally similar ester derivatives.