Synthesis and Characterization of Multinanometer‐Sized Expanded Dendralenes with an iso‐Poly(triacetylene) Backbone

A series of n]dendralenes (n =3, 4, 8, 3b – d (Fig. 1)) expanded with buta‐1,3‐diynediyl moieties between the C?C bonds were prepared by repetitive acetylenic scaffolding of 3‐(cyclohexylidene)penta‐1,4‐diyne building blocks (Scheme). These remarkably unstable iso‐poly(triacetylene) (iso‐PTA) oligomers were characterized by ¹H‐ and ¹³C? NMR (Fig. 3 and Table 1), IR, and UV/VIS (Figs. 4 and 6 and Table 2) spectroscopy, as well as mass spectrometry (Fig. 2). The expanded 8]dendralene contains 40 C(sp)‐ and C(sp²)‐atoms in the backbone and represents the longest iso‐PTA oligomer prepared to date. HOMO‐LUMO Gap energies were determined as a function of oligomeric length (Fig. 5 and Table 3), providing insight into the degree of π‐electron delocalization in these cross‐conjugated chromophores. A continous drop in the HOMO‐LUMO gap with increasing number of monomeric repeating units provides evidence that cross‐conjugation along the oligomeric backbone is effective to some extent. The limiting HOMO‐LUMO gap energy for an infinitely long, buta‐1,3‐diynediyl‐expanded dendralene was extrapolated to about 3.3–3.5 eV. The conformational preferences of the expanded dendralenes were analyzed in semi‐empirical calculations, revealing energetic preferences for planar or slightly twisted s‐cis and ‘U‐shaped' geometries.