Intramolecular Methylacridan-Methylacridinium Complexes with a Phenanthrene-4,5-diyl or Related Skeleton: Geometry-Property Relationships in Isolable CH Bridged Carbocations

Crystal structure of 4,5-di-bromo-phenanthrene

The synthesis and crystal structure of the title compound, C14H8Br2, is described. The mol-ecule is positioned on a twofold rotation axis and the asymmetric unit consists of half a mol-ecule with the other half being generated by symmetry. The presence of two large bromine atoms in the bay region significantly distorts the mol-ecule from planarity and the mean planes of the two terminal rings of the phenanthrene system are twisted away from each other by 28.51 (14)°. The torsion angle between the two C-Br bonds is 74.70 (14)° and the distance between the two Br atoms is 3.2777 (13) Å. The mol-ecules pack in layers in the crystal, with the centroids of the central rings of the phenanthrene units in adjacent layers separated by a distance of 4.0287 (10) Å. These centroids are shifted by 2.266 (6) Å relative to each other, indicating slippage in the stacking arrangement. Furthermore, the distance between the centroids of the terminal and central rings of the phenanthrene units in adjacent layers is slightly shorter at 3.7533 (19) Å. While all of the mol-ecules within each layer are oriented in the same direction, those in adjacent layers are oriented in the opposite direction, leading to anti-parallel stacks.

Twisted arenes

The nonbonded steric interactions of substituents at the crowded C4 and C5 positions of phenanthrene cause the aromatic system to twist out of planarity. Similarly, the presence of substituents at the C1 and C12 positions of benzo[c]phenanthrene and at the C1 and C14 positions of dibenzo[c,g]phenanthrene are responsible for the helical twists of the aromatic frameworks. Highly substituted acenes, such as octamethylnaphthalene and decaphenylanthracene, also exhibit substantial end-to-end twists. The X-ray structures of these compounds allow direct measurements of the extent of the structural distortions. The configurational stabilities of many twisted arenes have also been determined.