ChemInform Abstract: Spin-Orbit Coupling in the O- 2 Anion.

ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.     

Modulating the Electronic and Optical Properties of Tetragonal ZnSe Monolayers by Chalcogen Dopants

The recently proposed three‐atom‐thick single‐layer ZnSe sheet demonstrates a strong quantum confinement effect by exhibiting a large enhancement of band gap relative to the zinc blende (ZB) bulk phase. In this work, we aim at investigating the electronic and optical properties of this ultrathin tetragonal ZnSe single‐layer sheet with various chalcogen dopant atoms, based on density functional theory (DFT). We find that these single‐layer sheets with dopant atoms are still direct‐band semiconductors with tunable band gaps, which can lead to strong light absorption and potential applications in solar energy harvesting. Theoretical optical absorbance results show that the S‐doped ZnSe monolayer exhibits a higher absorption performance compared to other doped and undoped ZnSe monolayers. These findings pave a way for the modulation of novel ultrathin tetragonal ZnSe monolayers for a wealth of potential optoelectronic applications.     

Homobimetallic complexes of ligand having O- and S-donor sites with same and different di- and trialkyl/aryltin(IV) moiety: their synthesis, spectral characterization and biological activities

Homobimetallic complexes with oxygen and sulphur donor ligand have been synthesized at room temperature under stirring conditions using R₂SnCl₂ (R?=?Me, n-Bu) and R₃SnCl (R?=?Me, n-Bu, Ph) in 1:1 molar ratio. The synthesized complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, IR and multinuclear NMR (¹H, ¹³C) spectroscopy. These complexes have also been screened for their biological activities. IR data show that the ligand acts in a bidentate manner and exhibits trigonal bipyramidal geometry in solid state which is also confirmed by semi-empirical study. NMR data show that reported complexes exhibit tetrahedral geometry in solution. Results of antimicrobial screening activities indicated that complexes (6) and (7) are very effective antibacterial and antifungal agents, respectively, and they might indeed be a potential source of antimicrobial agents, while the complex (3) exhibits significant free radical scavenging ability with lower IC₅₀ value of 99.47?±?1.2???g/mL. Results of cytotoxicity/haemolytic activity showed the significant value of % haemolysis for complex (7) (18.101?±?2.3), while complex (4) was found to be least cytotoxic (5.733?±?1.0). Only a few colonies are observed in mutagenicity testing by Ames test.     

Intramolecular Excited State Electronic Coupling Along an alpha-Helical Peptide

Several families of peptides composed of alternating L-alanine (Ala) and alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib) residues with an appended N,N-dimethylanilino and/or 2-naphthalenyl group exist in MeOH and CDCl(3) as alpha-helices. Steady state and time-resolved fluorescence measurements show that the distance and dihedral angle between the appended donor and acceptor and the alignment of the vectors for intramolecular charge transfer interaction (from donor to acceptor) with or against that of the helical dipole moment significantly influence the efficiency of photoinduced electronic coupling and, hence, of intramolecular fluorescence quenching.     

Modulating Glycoside Hydrolase Activity between Hydrolysis and Transfer Reactions Using an Evolutionary Approach

The proteins within the CAZy glycoside hydrolase family GH13 catalyze the hydrolysis of polysaccharides such as glycogen and starch. Many of these enzymes also perform transglycosylation in various degrees, ranging from secondary to predominant reactions. Identifying structural determinants associated with GH13 family reaction specificity is key to modifying and designing enzymes with increased specificity towards individual reactions for further applications in industrial, chemical, or biomedical fields. This work proposes a computational approach for decoding the determinant structural composition defining the reaction specificity. This method is based on the conservation of coevolving residues in spatial contacts associated with reaction specificity. To evaluate the algorithm, mutants of α-amylase (TmAmyA) and glucanotransferase (TmGTase) from Thermotoga maritima were constructed to modify the reaction specificity. The K98P/D99A/H222Q variant from TmAmyA doubled the transglycosydation/hydrolysis (T/H) ratio while the M279N variant from TmGTase increased the hydrolysis/transglycosidation ratio five-fold. Molecular dynamic simulations of the variants indicated changes in flexibility that can account for the modified T/H ratio. An essential contribution of the presented computational approach is its capacity to identify residues outside of the active center that affect the reaction specificity.     

Modulating Metal-Nitrogen Coupling in Anti-Perovskite Nitride via Cation Doping for Efficient Reduction of Nitrate to Ammonia

The complexes of metal center and nitrogen ligands are the most representative systems for catalyzing hydrogenation reactions in small molecule conversion. Developing heterogeneous catalysts with similar active metal-nitrogen functional centers, nevertheless, still remains challenging. In this work, we demonstrate that the metal-nitrogen coupling in anti-perovskite Co₄N can be effective modulated by Cu doping to form Co₃CuN, leading to strongly promoted hydrogenation process during electrochemical reduction of nitrate (NO₃⁻RR) to ammonia. The combination of advanced spectroscopic techniques and density functional theory calculations reveal that Cu dopants strengthen the Co−N bond and upshifted the metal d-band towards the Fermi level, promoting the adsorption of NO₃⁻ and *H and facilitating the transition from *NO₂/*NO to *NO₂H/*NOH. Consequently, the Co₃CuN delivers noticeably better NO₃⁻RR activity than the pristine Co₄N, with optimal Faradaic efficiency of 97 % and ammonia yield of 455.3 mmol h⁻¹ cm⁻² at −0.3 V vs. RHE. This work provides an effective strategy for developing high-performance heterogeneous catalyst for electrochemical synthesis.     

Cationic Exciplexes: Role of Hydrogen Bonding in Deactivation and Electronic Coupling

Emissive properties for the cationic exciplex (A⁺*/D→A^.D^.+) of an isoquinolinium cation tethered to a substituted arene ( 1⁺ ) are strongly affected by hydrogen bonding solvents. At equal dielectric constant (ϵ), the ground-to-excited state energy gaps (ΔG) and solvent reorganization energies (λ_s) decrease from nitriles to aliphatic alcohols. The corresponding decrease from aliphatic alcohols to high hydrogen bond acidity solvents is ∼3 times larger. The exciplex decay (k_Ex), largely determined by unfolding of the exciplex to a stretched conformer, changes in a complex way depending on the strength of the hydrogen bond ability of these solvents. In contrast, the electronic couplings between the exciplex ground, excited, and charge transfer states do not show a solvent functionality dependence.     

Influences of Quantum Mechanically Mixed Electronic and Vibrational Pigment States in 2D Electronic Spectra of Photosynthetic Systems: Strong Electronic Coupling Cases

In 2D electronic spectroscopy studies, long‐lived quantum beats have recently been observed in photosynthetic systems, and several theoretical studies have suggested that the beats are produced by quantum mechanically mixed electronic and vibrational states. Concerning the electronic‐vibrational quantum mixtures, the impact of protein‐induced fluctuations was examined by calculating the 2D electronic spectra of a weakly coupled dimer with the Franck‐Condon active vibrational modes in the resonant condition [Fujihashi et al., J. Chem. Phys.­ 2015 , 142, 212403.]. This analysis demonstrated that quantum mixtures of the vibronic resonance are rather robust under the influence of the fluctuations at cryogenic temperatures, whereas the mixtures are eradicated by the fluctuations at physiological temperatures. However, this conclusion cannot be generalized because the magnitude of the coupling inducing the quantum mixtures is proportional to the inter‐pigment electronic coupling. In this study, we explore the impact of the fluctuations on electronic‐vibrational quantum mixtures in a strongly coupled dimer with an off‐resonant vibrational mode. Toward this end, we calculate energy transfer dynamics and 2D electronic spectra of a model dimer that corresponds to the most strongly coupled bacteriochlorophyll molecules in the Fenna‐Matthews‐Olson complex in a numerically accurate manner. The quantum mixtures are found to be robust under the exposure of protein‐induced fluctuations at cryogenic temperatures, irrespective of the resonance. At 300 K, however, the quantum mixing is disturbed more strongly by the fluctuations, and therefore, the beats in the 2D spectra become obscure even in a strongly coupled dimer with a resonant vibrational mode. Further, the overall behaviors of the energy transfer dynamics are demonstrated to be dominated by the environment and coupling between the 0 0 vibronic transitions as long as the Huang‐Rhys factor of the vibrational mode is small. The electronic‐vibrational quantum mixtures do not necessarily play a significant role in electronic energy transfer dynamics despite contributing to the enhancement of long‐lived quantum beating in the 2D spectra.     

Modulating the Electronic and Solid-State Structure of Organic Semiconductors by Site-Specific Substitution: The Case of Tetrafluoropentacenes

The properties as well as solid-state structures, singlet fission, and organic field-effect transistor (OFET) performance of three tetrafluoropentacenes (1,4,8,11: 10 , 1,4,9,10: 11 , 2,3,9,10: 12 ) are compared herein. The novel compounds 10 and 11 were synthesized in high purity from the corresponding 6,13-etheno-bridged precursors by reaction with dimethyl 1,2,4,5-tetrazine-3,6-dicarboxylate at elevated temperatures. Although most of the molecular properties of the compounds are similar, their chemical reactivity and crystal structures differ considerably. Isomer 10 undergoes the orbital symmetry forbidden thermal [4+4] dimerization, whereas 11 and 12 are much less reactive. The isomers 11 and 12 crystallize in a herringbone motif, but 10 prefers π–π stacking. Although the energy of the first electric dipole-allowed optical transition varies only within 370 cm⁻¹ (0.05 eV) for the neutral compounds, this amounts to roughly 1600 cm⁻¹ (0.20 eV) for radical cations and 1300 cm⁻¹ (0.16 eV) for dications. Transient spectroscopy of films of 11 and 12 reveals singlet-fission time constants (91±11, 73±3 fs, respectively) that are shorter than for pentacene (112±9 fs). OFET devices constructed from 11 and 12 show close to ideal thin-film transistor (TFT) characteristics with electron mobilities of 2×10⁻³ and 6×10⁻² cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively.     

O- and N-alkylated diketopyrrolopyrrole derivatives

The alkylation of 3-phenyl-6-(2-thienyl)pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione with 1-bromo-2-ethylhexane was performed. Besides the expected N,N′-dialkylated product, both possible N,O-dialkyl derivatives were isolated and identified for the first time. The position of the alkyl substituents in all three dialkylated isomers was determined by 2D ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy.     

O- and C-stannylation of nitroalkanes

Stannlylation of nitroalkanes by tributylstannyl amides and bis(tributylstannyl) or bis(triphenylstannyl) oxides has been found to give mainly tin nitronates. Some C-stannylated species have been also characterized.     

Efficient Radical Coupling of Organobromides Using Dimanganese Decacarbonyl

Wurtz-type radical coupling of a variety of allylic and benzylic bromides was observed on irradiation with dimanganese decacarbonyl in excellent yield (77-99%). Efficient cross-coupling of two different bromides was also readily achieved.     

Effects of Configurational Fluctuation on Electronic Coupling for Charge Transfer Dynamics

We advance a theory for the effects of bridge configurational fluctuations on the electronic coupling for electron transfer reactions in donor-bridge-acceptor systems. The theory of radiationless transitions was applied for activationless electron transfer, where the nuclear Franck–Condon constraints are minimized, with the initial vibronic state interacting directly with the final vibronic manifold, without the need for thermal activation. Invoking the assumption of energy-independent coupling, the time-dependent initial state population probability was analyzed in terms of a cumulant expansion. Two limiting situations were distinguished, i.e. the fast configurational fluctuation limit, where the electron transfer rate is given in terms of the configurational average of me squared electronic coupling, and the slow configurational fluctuation limit, where the dynamics is determined by a configurational averaging over a static distribution of electron transfer probability densities. The correlation times for configurational fluctuations of the electronic coupling will be obtained from the analysis of molecular dynamics, in conjunction with quantum mechanical calculations of the electronic coupling, to establish the appropriate limit for electron transfer dynamics.     

Bis-peri-dinaphtho-rylenes: Facile Synthesis via Radical-Mediated Coupling Reactions and their Distinctive Electronic Structures

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with a one-dimensional (1D), ribbon-like structure have the potential to serve as both model compounds for corresponding graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) and as materials for optoelectronics applications. However, synthesizing molecules of this type with extended π-conjugation presents a significant challenge. In this study, we present a straightforward synthetic method for a series of bis-peri-dinaphtho-rylene molecules, wherein the peri-positions of perylene, quaterrylene, and hexarylene are fused with naphtho-units. These molecules were efficiently synthesized primarily through intramolecular or intermolecular radical coupling of in situ generated organic radical species. Their structures were confirmed using X-ray crystallographic analysis, which also revealed a slightly bent geometry due to the incorporation of a cyclopentadiene ring at the bay regions of the rylene backbones. Bond lengh analysis and theoretical calculations indicate that their electronic structures resemble pyrenacenes more than quinoidal rylenes. That is, the aromatic sextets are predominantly localized along the long axis of the skeletones. As the chain length increases, these molecules exhibit enhanced electronic absorption with a bathochromic shift, and multiple amphoteric redox waves. This study introduces a novel synthetic approach for generating 1D extended PAHs and GNRs, along with their structure-dependent electronic properties.