What Electronic Structures and Geometries of Carborane Mono- and ortho-, meta-, and para-Diradicals are Preferred?

Thermochemistry of icosahedral closo-dicarboranes: a composite ab initio quantum-chemical perspective

We obtained accurate thermochemical properties for the ortho-, meta-, and para-dicarborane isomers (C2B10H12) by means of explicitly correlated high-level thermochemical procedures. The thermochemical properties include heats of formation, isomerization energies, C–H and B–H bond dissociation energies (BDEs), and ionization potentials. Of these only the ionization potentials are known experimentally. Our best theoretical ionization potentials, obtained by means of the ab initio W1–F12 thermochemical protocol, was 241.50 kcal mol–1 (para-dicarborane), 238.45 kcal mol–1 (meta-dicarborane), and 236.54 kcal mol–1 (ortho-dicarborane). These values agree with the experimental values adopted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) thermochemical tables to within overlapping uncertainties. However, they suggest that the experimental values may represent significant underestimations. For all isomers, the C–H BDEs are systematically higher than the B–H BDEs because of the relative stability of the boron-centred radicals. The C–H BDEs for the three isomers cluster within a narrow energetic interval, namely between 110.8 kcal mol–1 (para-dicarborane) and 111.7 kcal mol–1 (meta-dicarborane). The B–H BDEs cluster within a larger interval ranging between 105.8 and 108.1 kcal mol–1 (both obtained for ortho-dicarborane). We used our benchmark W1–F12 data to assess the performance of a number of lower cost composite ab initio methods. We found that the Gaussian-3 procedures (G3(MP2)B3 and G3B3) result in excellent performance with overall root-mean-square deviations (RMSDs) of 0.3–0.4 kcal mol–1 for the isomerization, ionization, and bond dissociation energies. However, the Gaussian-4 procedures (G4, G4(MP2), and G4(MP2)-6X) showed relatively poor performance with overall RMSDs of 1.3–3.7 kcal mol–1.

Carborane dyads for photoinduced electron transfer: photophysical studies on carbazole and phenyl-o-carborane molecular assemblies

o-Carborane-based donor-acceptor dyads comprising an o-carboranyl phenyl unit combined with N-carbazole (1) or 4-phenyl-N-carbazole (2) were prepared, and their dyad characters were confirmed by steady-state photochemistry and photodynamic experiments as well as electrochemical studies. The absorption and electrochemical properties of the dyads were essentially the sum of those of the carbazole and o-carboranyl phenyl units; this indicates negligible interaction between the carbazole and o-carborane units in the ground state. However, the emission spectra of 1 and 2 indicated that carbazole fluorescence was effectively quenched and a new charge-transfer (CT) emission was observed in solvents, varying from hexane to acetonitrile, which exhibited large Stoke shifts. The CT emission properties of o-carborane-based dyads were further analyzed by using Lippert-Mataga plots to show that unit charge separation occurred to form a charge-separated species in the excited state, namely, 1⋅2. This excited-state species was confirmed by nanosecond transient absorption spectra and spectroelectrochemical measurements; the photoexcitation of carbazole generated the CT state in which a radical cation and anion were formed at the carbazole and o-carborane units, respectively, within a few nanoseconds. DFT calculations corroborated the presence of this CT species and showed localized populations of the highest singly occupied molecular orbital on 2 in the reduced anionic state. As a result, molecular assemblies formed by linking the carbazole group with the o-carborane cage through a phenylene or multi-phenylene spacer revealed that the photoinduced electron-transfer process occurred intramolecularly.

Borazine: spin blocker or not?

Spin-blocker capacity of borazine is investigated formeta-BB,meta-NN andpara-BN structures highlighting the correlation between magnetic properties and aromaticity.

Homolytic reactive mass spectrometry of fullerenes: peculiarities of the reactions of C60 with aromatic compounds in the ionization chambers of mass spectrometers and in solution

C60 reacted with PhH, PhCl, BnH, BnNH2, and o-C2H2B10H10 in the electron impact (EI) ion source of a mass spectrometer at 300 °C forming phenyl, benzyl, and o-carboranyl adducts, respectively, stabilized by hydrogen addition and loss. Besides, the additions to C60 of methyl and phenyl radicals for toluene, and a phenyl radical for benzylamine were observed. A homolytic reaction mechanism was suggested involving the reaction of the radicals formed from the aromatics under EI with C60 at the ionization chamber walls. While the ion/molecule reaction of C60 with benzene performed by Sun et al. under chemical ionization conditions at 200 °C afforded the complex C60•PhH(+•), quite a different isomer, HC60Ph(+•), was detected in the present study as a sequence of the different reaction mechanisms. C60 also reacted with benzyl bromide in the laser desorption/ionization (LDI) source of a mass spectrometer to give C60CPh(+). Phenyl and benzyl derivatives of C60 were found, respectively, when the reactions of the fullerene with PhCl, BnH, and BnBr were performed in solution under ultra violet irradiation. For the reaction with toluene, the strong chemically induced dynamic electron polarization of the intermediate benzylfullerenyl radical with the reverse phase effect was found. The coincidence of the results of the mass spectrometry and solution reactions of C60 with aromatics, even though incomplete, additionally supports the hypothesis, formulated earlier, that the former results can predict the latter ones to a significant extent and shows that this conclusion is valid for both EI and LDI initiated reactions in mass spectrometers.

Carborane photochemistry triggered by aryl substitution: carborane-based dyads with phenyl carbazoles

A bright combination: a new type of donor-acceptor dyad, carbazolylaryl-substituted ortho-carboranes, which are conveniently prepared from the corresponding acetylenes and decaborane pathways, showed unique excited-state behavior associated with electron transfer unlike the meta- and para-counterparts.

Design of carborane molecular architectures with electronic structure computations: From endohedral and polyradical systems to multidimensional networks

The 12 cage-anchoring points of the very stable icosahedral ortho-, meta-, and para-carborane allow the design of multidimensional architectures provided new self-assembling routes are devised. We provide bases for constructing carborane molecular architectures through high-level quantum chemical computations. We consider ejection mechanisms for the inner atom/ion in endohedral carborane complexes, singlet-triplet energy gaps in carborane biradicals, as well as geometry reorganization in carborane neutral and dianionic triplet states. These features, explored in monomers, are starting points for the design of molecular architectures based on electronic structure properties of carborane assemblies.