Donor‐Substituted Perethynylated Dehydroannulenes and Radiaannulenes: Acetylenic Carbon Sheets Featuring Intense Intramolecular Charge Transfer

In this article, we report the preparation of unprecedented π‐conjugated macrocycles (Fig. 1) by acetylenic scaffolding using modular tetraethynylethene (TEE, 3,4‐diethynylhex‐3‐ene‐1,5‐diyne) building blocks. A novel photochemical access to (Z)‐bisdeprotected TEEs (Scheme 1) enabled the synthesis of the anilino‐substituted perethynylated octadehydro12]‐ ( 5 ) and dodecadehydro18]annulenes ( 6 ) (Scheme 2). Following the serendipitous discovery of perethynylated radiaannulenes (Scheme 3) that can be viewed as hybrids between perethynylated dehydroannulenes and expanded radialenes, two series of monocyclic ( 7 – 9 ; Scheme 6) and bicyclic ( 10 and 11 ; Scheme 7) representatives were prepared. Substantial strain in the macrocyclic perimeter of radiaannulene 7 was revealed by X‐ray crystal‐structure analysis (Fig. 2). Nevertheless, mono‐ and bicyclic radiaannulenes are stable at room temperature in air for months. The opto‐electronic properties of both dehydroannulenes and radiaannulenes are substantially enhanced by the introduction of the peripheral anilino donor groups that undergo strong intramolecular charge‐transfer interactions with the electron‐accepting all‐C cores. As a result, the UV/VIS spectra feature intense, bathochromically shifted charge‐transfer bands that disappear upon protonation of the anilino moieties and are fully recovered upon neutralization (Figs. 4–9). A comparison between anilino‐substituted perethynylated dehydroannulenes, expanded radialenes, and radiaannulenes revealed that the efficiency of the intramolecular charge‐transfer interaction strongly depends on the structure of the electron‐accepting all‐C perimeter. Electrochemical investigations (Table) demonstrated that the radiaannulenes are particularly powerful electron acceptors. Thus, bicyclic radiaannulene 11 , which possesses eight peripheral 3,5‐di(tert‐butyl)phenyl substituents, is reversibly reduced at ?0.83 V in THF (vs. Fc⁺/Fc), making it a better electron acceptor than buckminsterfullerene C₆₀ under comparable conditions.