Theoretical Investigation of Photomagnetic Properties of Oxoverdazyl-Substituted Pyrenes

Hydrogen-Bonding-Assisted Substituent Engineering for Modulating Magnetic Spin Couplings and Switching in m-Phenylene Nitroxide Diradicals

Rational modification of the coupler for the theoretical design of molecular magnets has attracted extensive interest. Substituent insertion is a widely used strategy for adjusting molecular properties, but its effect and modulation on magnetic spin couplings have been less investigated. In this work, we predict the magnetic properties of the design m-phenylene nitroxide (NO) diradicals regulated by introducing substituents. The calculated results for those two pairs of diradicals indicate that the signs of their magnetic coupling constants J do not change, but the magnitudes remarkably change after substituent regulation in the range from 253 to 730 cm-1. Such noticeable magnetic changes induced by introducing subsituents are mainly attributed to different electronic effects of substituents, assisted by the proximity of two NO groups, good planarity, conjugation, and an intramolecular hydrogen bond. In particular, the insertion of intramolecular H-bonds not only indicates an electronic effect but also has greatly changed the spin density distribution. Further aromaticity of the coupler ring, spin densities, and molecular orbitals and energetics was evaluated to gain a better understanding of magnetic regulation. Interestingly, further protonation of some substituents (e.g., -NO2 and -CO2) can noticeably turn the spin coupling from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic, showing manipulable magnetic switching. This work provides a promising strategy based on substituent engineering for magnetic spin coupling modulation, not only turning the coupling magnitude but also enabling the magnetic switching, thus providing insights into molecular magnetic manipulation for spintronics applications.

Magnetic coupling modulation in meta-nitroxide-functionalized isoalloxazine magnets with redox-active units as efficient side-modulators

Magnetic conversion can be accomplished in a variety of ways, as organic molecules with switchable magnetic characteristics offer numerous technological applications. It is crucial to find magnetism-switchable systems because, in the field of organic magnetic materials, the redox-induced magnetic reversal is very simple to achieve and shows significant applications. Herein, we computationally design isoalloxazine-based diradicals through oxidizing N10 and adding a nitroxide to C8 as the spin source (i.e. 8-nitroxide-isoalloxazine 10-oxide, an m-phenylene-like nitroxide diradical expanded with a redox unit as a side-modulator) and its N1/N5-hydrogenated/protonated diradical derivatives and introducing substituents (-OH, -NH₂, and -NO₂) to C6. We demonstrate that the basically modified structure exhibits ferromagnetic (FM) characteristics with a magnetic coupling constant (J) of 561.3 cm^-1 calculated at the B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) level, obeying the meta-phenylene-mediated diradical character, and dihydrogenation can lead to an AFM diradical with considerably large J (-976.1 cm^-1). Surprisingly, protonation at N1 or N5 can lead to distinctly different magnetic variations (561.3 → -1602.9 cm^-1 at N1 versus 561.3 → 379.1 cm^-1 at N5). Analyses indicate that small singlet-triplet energy gaps and small energy gaps between the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (HOMO, LUMO) of the closed shell singlet state are the key features of these isoalloxazine diradicals, and aromaticity variations, significant spin delocalization from the π-conjugated structure and spin polarization from the non-Kekule structure induced by modification are responsible for the magnetic conversion. Furthermore, the spin alternation rule, the singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO) effect, and the SOMO-SOMO energy splitting of the triplet state are used to analyze these distinct variations. This work provides a novel understanding of the structures and characteristics of modified isoalloxazine diradicals, as well as essential details for the intricate design and characterization of new isoalloxazine-based potential organic magnetic switches.

Metaphenylene-based nitroxide diradicals: a protocol to calculate intermolecular coupling constant in a one-dimensional chain

Intramolecular magnetic exchange coupling constants are determined for seven isolated metaphenylene-based dinitroxide diradicals by unrestricted density functional methodology (UDFT) using a number of hybrid functionals such as B3LYP, B3LYP-D3, M06-2X, HSE, and LC-ωPBE. Geometry optimizations for both triplet and broken symmetry solutions are performed with the 6-311G(d,p) basis set for all the molecules. In all cases, B3LYP somewhat overestimates the coupling constant, and M06-2X produces a more realistic value. The range-separated HSE and LC-ωPBE functional yield large deviations from experiment. The nature of spin coupling agrees with the spin alternation rule and the calculated spin densities, in conjunction with the McConnell rule. It can also be explained in terms of the nondisjoint Single Occupied Molecular Orbital effect. Furthermore, it correlates with the calculated NICS(1) isotropic and zz and hyperfine coupling constants. We also put forward a method for the determination of the intramolecular (J) and intermolecular (J') coupling constants from quantum chemical calculations on a one-dimensional chain of weakly bound diradicals. Two expressions are derived for the energies of different spin states in terms of J and J'. Exemplary UDFT computations are done on the N-mers (N = 2-6) of two diradicals for which the crystal coordinates are available. The intramolecular and intermolecular coupling constants are determined from the calculated UDFT energies. These are indeed in general agreement with the measured coupling constants.