Type conformations and pseudorotation interconversion path-way between conformations: A tool to study medium size (5–9 atoms) rings

Luminescent Behavior of Zn(II) and Mn(II) Halide Derivatives of 4-Phenyldinaphtho[2,1-d:1',2'-f][1,3,2]dioxaphosphepine 4-Oxide and Single-Crystal X-ray Structure Determination of the Ligand

The two enantiomers of chiral phosphonate 4-phenyldinaphtho[2,1-d:1',2'-f][1,3,2]dioxaphosphepine 4-oxide, O=PPh(BINOL), were synthesized from the proper 1,1'-bi-2-naphtol (BINOL) enantiomer and characterized. The structure of the (S)-enantiomer was elucidated by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The reaction with anhydrous ZnBr2 afforded complexes having the general formula [ZnBr2{O=PPh(BINOL)}2] that showed intense fluorescence centered in the near-UV region rationalized on the basis of TD-DFT calculations. The corresponding Mn(II) complexes with the general formula [MnX2{O=PPh(BINOL)}2] (X = Cl, Br) exhibited dual emission upon excitation with UV light, with the relative intensity of the bands dependent upon the choice of the halide. The highest energy transition is comparable with that of the Zn(II) complex, while the lowest energy emission falls in the red region of the spectrum and is characterized by lifetimes in the hundreds of microseconds range. Although the emission at lower energy can also be achieved by direct excitation of the metal center, the luminescence decay curves suggest that the band in the red range is possibly derived from BINOL-centered excited states populated by intersystem crossing.

Systematic description of molecular deformations with Cremer-Pople puckering and deformation coordinates utilizing analytic derivatives: Applied to cycloheptane, cyclooctane, and cyclo[18]carbon

The conformational properties of ring compounds such as cycloalkanes determine to a large extent their stability and reactivity. Therefore, the investigation of conformational processes such as ring inversion and/or ring pseudorotation has attracted a lot of attention over the past decades. An in-depth conformational analysis of ring compounds requires mapping the relevant parts of the conformational energy surface at stationary and also at non-stationary points. However, the latter is not feasible by a description of the ring with Cartesian or internal coordinates. We provide in this work, a solution to this problem by introducing a new coordinate system based on the Cremer-Pople puckering and deformation coordinates. Furthermore, analytic first- and second-order derivatives of puckering and deformation coordinates, i.e., B-matrices and D-tensors, were developed simplifying geometry optimization and frequency calculations. The new coordinate system is applied to map the potential energy surfaces and reaction paths of cycloheptane (C₇H₁₄), cyclooctane (C₈H₁₆), and cyclo[18]carbon (C₁₈) at the quantum chemical level and to determine for the first time all stationary points of these ring compounds in a systematic way.