Optical and bowl-to-bowl inversion properties of sumanene substituted on its benzylic positions; a DFT/TD-DFT study

Synthetic approaches to bowl-shaped π-conjugated sumanene and its congeners

Since the first synthetic report in 2003 by Sakurai et al., sumanene (derived from the Indian 'Hindi as well as Sanskrit word' "Suman", which means "Sunflower"), a beautifully simple yet much effective bowl-shaped C 3-symmetric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon having three benzylic positions clipped between three phenyl rings in the triphenylene framework has attracted a tremendous attention of researchers worldwide. Therefore, since its first successful synthesis, a variety of functionalized sumanenes as well as heterosumanenes have been developed because of their unique physiochemical properties. For example, bowl-to-bowl inversion, bowl depth, facial selectivity, crystal packing, metal complexes, intermolecular charge transfer systems, cation-π complexation, electron conductivity, optical properties and so on. Keeping the importance of this beautiful scaffold in mind, we compiled all the synthetic routes available for the construction of sumanene and its heteroatom derivatives including Mehta's first unsuccessful effort up to the latest achievements. Our major goal to write this review article was to provide a quick summary of where the field has been, where it stands at present, and where it might be going in near future. Although several reviews have been published on sumanene chemistry dealing with different aspects but this is the first report that comprehensively describes the 'all-in-one' chemistry of the sumanene architecture since its invention to till date. We feel that this attractive review article will definitely help the scientific community working not only in the area of organic synthesis but also in materials science and technology.

Theoretical characterization of supramolecular complexes formed by fullerenes and dimeric porphyrins

Intramolecular stacking is very strong in dimeric porphyrins. However, in solution they are able to inhibit folding and can trap fullerenes with very high association constants. Diabatic interaction energies can be a useful approach to evaluate the strength of porphyrin/fullerene supramolecular complexes.

Interactions of Schiff base compounds and their coordination complexes with the drug cisplatin

There is a complex interplay between the structural and other physicochemical properties of new compounds and the molecules in living organisms.

Influence of nitrogen doping in sumanene framework toward hydrogen storage: A computational study

Two conditions are important to obtain appropriate substances for hydrogen storage; high surface area and fitting binding energy (BE). Doping is a key strategy that improves BE. We investigated hydrogen adsorption onto twenty six nitrogen disubstituted isomers of sumanene (C₁₉N₂H₁₂) by MP2/6-311++G(d,p)//B3LYP/6-31+G(d) and M06-2X/6-31+G(d) levels of theory. Effect of nitrogen doping in different positions of sumanene was checked. To obtain better BE, basis set superposition error (BSSE) and zero point energy (ZPE) corrections were used. Anticipating of adsorption sites and extra details about adsorption process was done by molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) surfaces. Various types of density of state (DOS) diagrams such as total DOS (TDOS), projected DOS (PDOS) and overlap population DOS (OPDOS) and natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis were used to find better insight on the adsorption properties. In addition of temperature depending of the BE, HOMO-LUMO gap (HLG), dipole moment, reactivity and stability, bowl depth and natural population analysis (NPA) of the isomers were studied. A physisorption mechanism for adsorption was proposed and a trivial change was seen. Place of nitrogen atoms in sumanene frame causes to binding energy increases or decreases compared with pristine sumanene. The best and the worst isomers and category of isomers were suggested.

Exploring the “fold-in” strategy toward the construction of a highly-strained triazasumanene skeleton

“Fold-in”-type syntheses toward the construction of tribenzotriazasumanene were attempted under oxidative and reductive conditions, which resulted in the formation of two different products.

The INV24 test set: how well do quantum-chemical methods describe inversion and racemization barriers?

For years, there has been ongoing interest in experimentally and theoretically understanding inversion and racemization processes. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no computational study that systematically investigated how well low-level quantum-chemical methods predict inversion barriers. Herein, we provide an answer to this question and we present the INV24 benchmark set of 24 high-level, ab initio inversion barriers. INV24 covers inversion in triatomics, in pyramidal molecules, in one cyclic system, and in various helical and bowl-shaped compounds. Our results indicate that previously applied DFT approximations combined with small basis sets are not reliable enough and that at least a triple-ζ basis is needed for meaningful results. Moreover, we show that intramolecular London dispersion influences the barriers by 2 kcal/mol or more and that dispersion corrections should always be applied to DFT results. With our analysis of 34 DFT approximations, we can reproduce the well-known Jacob’s Ladder scheme with (meta-)generalized-gradient-approximation methods underestimating barriers and global-hybrid DFT functionals performing better. Range-separated hybrids or Minnesota-type hybrids are not particularly superior to more conventional methods, such as B3LYP-D3. The by far best results are achieved with dispersion-corrected double hybrids, which give results below the chemical accuracy target of 1 kcal/mol. They also outperform wave-function second-order perturbation theory approaches and we recommend using them whenever possible. Given that our systematic study of INV24 is the first of its kind, our findings have the potential to change common practice in this field and they will guide future investigations of inversion processes.

Coordination compounds of a hydrazone derivative with Co(iii), Ni(ii), Cu(ii) and Zn(ii): synthesis, characterization, reactivity assessment and biological evaluation

Increasing inhibitory effect of Zn-Hp2DAP < Hp2DAP < Co-Hp2DAP on ABC transporter MDR1 drug efflux pump.

Influence of sumanene modifications with boron and nitrogen atoms to its hydrogen adsorption properties

We investigate the influence of sumanene modifications on its adsorption properties towards the hydrogen molecule.

Porphyrins bearing corannulene pincers: outstanding fullerene receptors

Porphyrins and corannulenes join forces to trap fullerenes with unprecedented strength!

Influence of electron acceptors on the kinetics of metoprolol photocatalytic degradation in TiO2 suspension. A combined experimental and theoretical study

The presence of electron acceptors improves the photocatalytic degradation of metoprolol (MET). Reaction intermediates were studied in detail. The interactions of reactive radical species with MET were theoretically investigated by DFT computations.