A strictly "pair"-selective synthesis of conjugated diynes via Pd-catalyzed cross coupling of 1,3-diynylzincs: a superior alternative to the Cadiot-Chodkiewicz reaction

A strictly "pair"-selective synthesis of conjugated diynes via Pd-catalyzed cross coupling of 1,3-diynylzincs is described. This method, like the Cadiot-Chodkiewicz reaction, requires three steps for the synthesis of R(1)Ctbd1;CCtbd1;CR(2) from R(1)Ctbd1;CH, R(2)X, and HCtbd1;CH. However, the high "pair"-selectivity permitting high-yield production of the desired conjugated diynes without separation of symmetrical diynes promises to make the present protocol superior to the Cadiot-Chodkiewicz reaction in many cases.     

Analytical expressions for the count of LM-conjugated circuits of benzenoid hydrocarbons

A recursive method for enumeration of linearly independent and minimal conjugated circuits of benzenoid hydrocarbons had previously been given which is valid for several classes of benzenoid hydrocarbons. In the present article, the properties and constructions of unique minimal conjugated circuits and pairs of minimal conjugated circuits of a ring s in a benzenoid hydrocarbon B are investigated. An analytical expression for the count of LM-conjugated circuits of B is given which is based on the counts of Kekulé structures of selected subgraphs of B. By using the method, the LMC expression of any benzenoid hydrocarbon can be obtained. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Chemical graph theory. IV. On the cyclic polynomial

The definition of the cyclic polynomial of conjugated hydrocarbons is offered. The combinatorial characteristics of this polynomial are investigated. The most important property of the cyclic polynomial is that it can be used for enumeration of conjugated circuits.     

Enumeration of conjugated circuits in nanotubes

The resonance energy of (1,1)n "armchair" carbon nanotubes and (n,n)1 nanoribbons was determined by enumerating the conjugated circuits (CC) and the Kekulé structures. The lower indices denote the number of hexagon layers. It was found that the resonance energy per carbon atom is equal to 0.160 eV in (1,1)n tubes and 0.142 eV in (n,n)1 tubes.     

Generalized bond orders

We introduce generalized bond orders defined in terms of weighted Kekule valence structures. The weights were determined by the contributions of linearly independent and minimal conjugated circuits in individual Kekule valence structure. When special values for the contributions of conjugated circuits of different size are assumed, one obtains quantities that show considerable similarity to the Pauling and the Clar's bond orders. Pauling bond orders are obtained when one assumes that all conjugated circuits make equal contribution to bond orders. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Topological ring currents in the "empty" ring of benzo-annelated perylenes

Cyclic conjugation in benzo-annelated perylenes is examined by means of the topological π-electron ring currents calculated for each of their constituent rings, in a study that is an exact analogy of a recent investigation by Gutman et al. based on energy-effect values for the corresponding rings in each of these structures. "Classical" approaches, such as Kekule? structures, Clar "sextet" formulas, and circuits of conjugation, predict that the central ring in perylene is "empty" and thus contributes negligibly to cyclic conjugation. However, conclusions from the present calculations of topological ring currents agree remarkably with those arising from the earlier study involving energy-effect values in that, contrary to what would be predicted from the classical approaches, rings annelated in an angular fashion relative to the central ring of these perylene structures materially increase the extent of that ring's involvement in cyclic conjugation. It is suggested that such close quantitative agreement between the predictions of these two superficially very different indices (energy effect and topological ring current) might be due to the fact that, ultimately, both depend, albeit in ostensibly quite different ways, only on an adjacency matrix that contains information about the carbon-carbon connectivity of the conjugated system in question.     

Recursive Formulae for Enumeration of LM-Conjugated Circuits in Structurally Related Benzenoid Hydrocarbons

The linearly independent and minimal conjugated (LM-conjugated) circuits of benzenoid hydrocarbons play the central role in the conjugated circuit model. For a general case, the enumeration of LM-conjugated circuits may be tedious as it requires construction of all Kekule structures. In our previous work, a recursive method for enumeration of LM-conjugated circuits of benzenoid hydrocarbons was established. In this paper, we further extend the recursive formulae for enumerations of LM-conjugated circuits for both catacondensed benzenoid hydrocarbons and some families of structurally related pericondensed benzenoid hydrocarbons.     

Aromaticity and magnetotropicity of dicyclopenta-fused polyacenes

Most dicyclopenta-fused polyacenes are predicted to be moderately aromatic and diatropic, although they have no (4n + 2)-site conjugated circuits. We applied our graph theory of aromaticity and magnetotropicity to these molecules and found that these anomalous properties arise from a set of non-conjugated circuits, which contribute collectively to aromaticity and diatropicity. This result indicates that the conjugated circuit model is not always applicable to such non-alternant hydrocarbons. Dianions of dicyclopenta-fused polyacenes are more aromatic than their respective neutral species, because they are iso-pi-electronic with aromatic polyacenes.     

Aromaticity and Diatropicity of Polyacenequinododimethides

Typical polyacenequinododimethides exist only in a single classical structure. These hydrocarbons are moderately aromatic and diatropic, although they have no aromatic conjugated circuits. This apparent dichotomy was resolved with our graph theory of aromaticity and magnetotropicity. Many nonconjugated circuits were found to contribute collectively to aromaticity and diatropicity. For individual molecules, local aromaticity increases with distance from the exo‐methylene groups. This fact indicates that the conjugated‐circuit model is not always applicable to semibenzenoid hydrocarbons such as polyacenequinododimethides.     

Resonance energy of very large benzenoid hydrocarbons

The resonance energy of conjugated benzenoid systems is expressed as contributions arising from independent conjugated circuits. The scheme has been applied to numerous very large conjugated systems. In many cases, it was possible to find regularities in the increments for the resonance energy within a family of benzenoid systems as the number of benzene rings is increased.     

Hückel and Möbius cyclic conjugated molecules

Generalized graphs represent Hückel-type and Möbius-type polycyclic conjugated systems. We show that the number of generalized graphs with different spectra for a given parent graph is not larger than 2 ^N(R) and is equal to 2 ^N(R) if no two rings are equivalent,N(R) being the number of rings (fundamental circuits) in the parent graph. We demonstrate that the rule for the stability of generalized graphs, proved in a previuos paper, and the information on the relative magnitudes of the effects of individual circuits enable one to predict the stabilities of generalized graphs without performing numerical calculations.     

Electronic structure of metal/molecule//metal junctions: a density functional theory study of the influence of the molecular terminal group

We report on density functional theory calculations of the electronic structure of Au(111)/molecule//Au(111) junctions in which thiol molecules are chemically bound at one end to a gold electrode (the "substrate"), while the other end has a separation of a few to several angstroms from a second gold electrode (the "tip"). Our goal is to investigate the role of different molecular terminal groups and of the tip-molecule distance either on the spatial dependence of the local density of states (LDOS) at the Fermi energy E(f) or on the energy dependence of the projected density of states onto different molecular subunits. We consider conjugated diphenylthiol (SPh2R) molecules with terminal groups R = H, SH, CH3, or CF3 as well as "mixed" conjugated-saturated phenylthiol-pentane (SPhC4CH3) and butanethiol-toluene (SC4PhCH3) molecules. For SPh2R molecules, the LDOS at E(f) exhibits an oscillatory exponential decay along the molecule, with an average decay constant that depends weakly on the R terminal group. For the mixed aromatic-aliphatic molecules instead, there are large differences in the LDOS at E(f), with SC4PhCH3 showing a much larger LDOS in the proximity of the terminal CH3 group than SPhC4CH3.     

π‐electron currents in polycyclic conjugated hydrocarbons: Coronene and its isomers having five and seven member rings

We have outlined novel graph theoretical model for computing π‐electron currents in π‐electron polycyclic conjugated hydrocarbons. We start with Kekulé valence structures of a polycyclic conjugated hydrocarbon and their conjugated circuits. To each 4n+2 conjugated circuits we assign counter clockwise current i and to each 4n conjugated circuit we assign clockwise current i. By adding the contributions from all conjugated circuits in a single Kekulé valence structure one obtains π‐electron current pattern for the particular Kekulé valence structure. By adding the conjugated circuit currents in all Kekulé valence structure one obtains the pattern of π‐electron currents for considered molecule. We report here π‐electron current patters for coronene and 17 its isomers, which have been recently considered by Balaban et al., obtained by replacing one or more pairs of peripheral benzene rings with five and seven member rings. Our results are compared with their reported π‐electron current density patters computed by ab initio molecular orbital (MO) computations and satisfactory parallelism is found between two so disparate approaches. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2012     

Resonance energy in graphite

According to Zhu et al. the resonance energy/electron (REPE) in infinite graphite sheets is equal to 0.17 eV. In the present work the REPE was calculated for parallelogram-shaped graphite sheets (PSGSs). The number of Kekulé structures and contributions of benzene-like and naphthalene-like conjugated circuits were taken into account. Analogously to polyacenes, it was found that REPE = 0.00 eV in PSGSs. The convergence is slow. These results indicate that PSGS is less "aromatic" than its infinite counterpart. Therefore addition reactions are expected to be less difficult to carry out in PSGSs than in infinite or rectangular graphite sheets.     

New π‐Conjugated Polymers Containing 1,3,5‐Triazine Units in the Main Chain: Synthesis and Optical and Electrochemical Properties of the Polymers

Summary: Three new soluble π‐conjugated polymers containing 1,3,5‐triazine units in the main chain, Pa–Pc, were synthesized. The polymers showed optical properties in solution that were mainly dependant on the properties of the substituting R groups, on the triazine ring. Hence, Pa and Pb (R = H and  OCH₃, respectively) showed blue photoluminescent (PL) emission with high quantum yields (QY) even in polar solvents, whereas Pc (R = N,N‐dimethylamino) gave green‐blue PL emission with very low QY. The PL spectra of the polymers in solution were concentration and polarity dependent, which suggested the formation of an exciplex.

The three new soluble π‐conjugated polymers containing 1,3,5‐triazine units in the main chain synthesized here.     

An ab initio valence bond study on cyclopenta-fused naphthalenes and fluoranthenes

To probe the effect of external cyclopenta-fusion on a naphthalene core, ab initio valence bond (VB) calculations have been performed, using strictly atomic benzene p-orbitals and p-orbitals that are allowed to delocalize, on naphthalene (1), acenaphthylene (2), pyracylene (3), cyclopenta[b,c]acenaphthylene (4), fluoranthene (5), and cyclopenta[c,d]fluoranthene (6). For the related compounds 1-4 and 5,6 the total resonance energies (according to Pauling's definition) are similar. Partitioning of the total resonance energy in contributions from the possible 4n + 2 and 4n pi-electron conjugated circuits shows that only the 6pi-electron conjugated circuits (benzene-like) contribute to the resonance energy. The results show that cyclopenta-fusion does not extend the pi system in the ground state; the five-membered rings act as peri-substituents. As a consequence, the differences in (total) resonance energy do not coincide with the differences in thermodynamic stability. Notwithstanding, the relative energies of the Kekule structures can be estimated using Randic's conjugated circuits model.     

Applying the conjugated circuits method to Clar structures of [n]phenylenes for determining resonance energies

We consider the aromaticity of biphenylene and structurally related linear or angular [n]phenylenes for which the direct application of the model of conjugated circuits does not offer valid expressions for resonance energy and aromaticity. We located the cause of this problem as being due to Kekulé valence structures in which neighboring benzenoid rings are connected by two CC double bonds. By restricting the selection of Kekulé valence structures to those that contribute to Clar structures of such systems, we were able to show that linear and angular [n]phenylenes have approximately similar resonance energies, with angular [n]phenylenes being slightly more stable due to second order contributions arising from disjoint conjugated circuits. Expressions for resonance energies of [n]phenylenes up to n = 8 are listed and recursion expressions for higher n values are outlined.     

Resonance and aromaticity: an ab initio valence bond approach

Resonance energy is one of the criteria to measure aromaticity. The effect of the use of different orbital models is investigated in the calculated resonance energies of cyclic conjugated hydrocarbons within the framework of the ab initio Valence Bond Self-Consistent Field (VBSCF) method. The VB wave function for each system was constructed using a linear combination of the VB structures (spin functions), which closely resemble the Kekulé valence structures, and two types of orbitals, that is, strictly atomic (local) and delocalized atomic (delocal) p-orbitals, were used to describe the π-system. It is found that the Pauling-Wheland's resonance energy with nonorthogonal structures decreases, while the same with orthogonalized structures and the total mean resonance energy (the sum of the weighted off-diagonal contributions in the Hamiltonian matrix of orthogonalized structures) increase when delocal orbitals are used as compared to local p-orbitals. Analysis of the interactions between the different structures of a system shows that the resonance in the 6π electrons conjugated circuits have the largest contributions to the resonance energy. The VBSCF calculations also show that the extra stability of phenanthrene, a kinked benzenoid, as compared to its linear counterpart, anthracene, is a consequence of the resonance in the π-system rather than the H-H interaction in the bay region as suggested previously. Finally, the empirical parameters for the resonance interactions between different 4n+2 or 4n π electrons conjugated circuits, used in Randi?'s conjugated circuits theory or Herdon's semi-emprical VB approach, are quantified. These parameters have to be scaled by the structure coefficients (weights) of the contributing structures.     

Polymeric Semiconductors with a Pre‐Specified Alternation of Conjugated Bonds and Metal Clusters

Summary: In this work the first samples of polymeric semiconductors of a new structure are produced. Their electric conductivity is of the order ∼10⁻² Ohm⁻¹ · cm⁻¹ and it increases with temperature. Their synthesis includes a stage of radiation grafting of a matrix‐type on stretched polyamide films. Conducting molecular circuits in such materials include fragments with conjugated bonds and metal clusters. The alternation of these fragments is determined by the polyamide matrix.

Plot of voltage versus current determined for new polymer semiconducting films where fragments with conjugated bonds alternate with silver clusters.