Photoelectron spectroscopic assignment of symmetry to the ground state and first excited state of the 1,4-cyclohexadiene radical cation

The empirical correlation of the photoelectron spectra of 1,4-cyclohexadiene (molecule 4), 1, 4, 5, 8-tetrahydronaphthalene (molecule 5), 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 1 0-hexahydroanthracene (molecule 6), and 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12-octahydronaphthacene (molecules 6) proves that the electronic ground state of these molecules is ²B_1u, assuming that they have D_2h symmetry. In particular this confirms previous predictions for 1,4-cyclohexadiene (molecule 4), for which the “inverted” orbital sequence 2b_1u(π) above lb_3g(π) had been proposed under the assumption that hyperconjugative “through-bond” interaction dominates the “through-space” interaction of the two semi-localized π-orbitals.