Electronic Structures of Anti-Ferromagnetic Tetraradicals: Ab Initio and Semi-Empirical Studies

Pathway to Polyradicals: A Planar and Fully π-Conjugated Organic Tetraradical(oid)

In this work, we provide a general strategy to stabilize the ground state of polyradical(oid)s and make higher spin states thermally accessible. As a proof of concept, we propose to merge two planar fully π-conjugated diradical(oid)s to obtain a planar and cross-conjugated tetraradical(oid). Using multireference quantum chemistry methods, we show that the designed tetraradical(oid) is stabilized by aromaticity and delozalization in the π-system and has six thermally accessible spin states within 1.72 kcal/mol. Analysis of the electronic structure of these six states of the tetraradical(oid) shows that its frontier π-system consists of two weakly interacting subsystems: aromatic cycles and four unpaired electrons. Conjugation between unpaired electrons, which favors closed-shell structures, is mitigated by delocalization and the aromaticity of the bridging groups, leading to the synergistic cross-coupling between two diradical(oid) subunits to stabilize the tetraradical(oid) electronic structure.

Energy Gaps of Polyradicals from an Effective and Transferable Hamiltonian with through-Bond Interactions

Current model Hamiltonians and ab initio many-body quantum treatments of π-conjugated polyradicals formed from hydrocarbons produce divergent results because of numerical complexity and large size of the basis-function set used. We propose an alternative, three-term Hamiltonian, to describe these various polyradicals that simplifies considerably the computational cost while providing a physical interpretation for all three terms and a high degree of model universality. The essential feature of this Hamiltonian is a term, not present in previous models, describing the three-sited through-bond interaction that governs the noninteracting spin-up and spin-down sectors. A computation of the lowest energy gaps and spin configurations for the smaller polyradicals demonstrates the efficacy of the model and its potential in applications in revealing electrical conductivity and ferromagnetism of the more complicated substituted polyradicals.