Remarkable interplay of redox states and conformational changes in a sterically crowded, cross-conjugated tetrathiafulvalene vinylog

Derivatives of 9-2-(1,3-dithiol-2-ylidene)ethylidene]thioxanthene have been synthesized using Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reactions of (1,3-dithiol-2-yl)phosphonate reagents with thioxanthen-9-ylidene-acetaldehyde (5). Further reactions lead to the sterically crowded cross-conjugated "vinylogous tetrathiafulvalene" derivative 9-2,3-bis-(4,5-dimethyl-1,3-dithiol-2-ylidene)-propylidene]thioxanthene (10). X-ray crystallography, solution electrochemistry, optical spectroscopy, spectroelectrochemistry, and simultaneous electrochemistry and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, combined with theoretical calculations performed at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level, elucidate the interplay of the electronic and structural properties in these molecules. For compound 10, multistage redox behavior is observed: the overall electrochemical process can be represented by 10-->10(.+)-->10(2+)-->10(4+) with good reversibility for the 10-->10(.+)-->10(2+) transformations. At the tetracation stage there is the maximum gain in aromaticity at the dithiolium and thioxanthenium rings. Theory predicts that for 10, 10(.+), and 10(2+) the trans isomers are more stable than the cis isomers (by ca. 2-18 kJ mol(-1)), whereas for 10(4+) the cis isomer becomes more stable than the trans isomer (by ca. 25 kJ mol(-1)) trans and cis refer to the arrangement of the two dithiole moieties with respect to the central ==C(R)--C(H)== fragment]. These data explain the detection in cyclic voltammograms of both trans and cis isomers of 10 and 10(.+) during the reduction of 10(4+) at fast scan rates (>100 mV s(-1)) when the cis-trans isomerization is not completed within the timescale of the experiment. The X-ray structure of the charge-transfer complex (CTC) of 10 with 2,4,5,7-tetranitrofluorene-9-dicyanomethylenefluorene (DTeF) stoichiometry: 10(.+)(DTeF)(2) (.-)2 PhCl] reveals a twisted conformation of 10(.+) (driven by the bulky thioxanthene moiety) and provides a very rare example of segregated stacking of a fluorene acceptor in a CTC.