Theoretical notions of aromaticity and antiaromaticity: phenalenyl ions versus fluorenyl ions

The dications 6, 7, and 8 and dianions 9, 10, and 11 of the bistricyclic aromatic enes bifluorenylidene (1), 1,1'-biphenalenylidene (2), and 9-(9H-fluoren-9-ylidene)-1H-phenalene (4), as well as monocations 12a and 13a and monoanions 14a and 15a of phenalene (3) and fluorene (5), were subjected to a systematic DFT and ab initio study. B3LYP and MP2 methods were employed to estimate the relative aromaticity/antiaromaticity of these ions, using energetic, magnetic, and structural criteria. The couplings of monoions 12a-15a to give the respective diions 6-11 result in a similar destabilization in both the fluorene and phenalene series. The interactions between the C13H8 units in diions 6-11 are weak and are not expected to result in a significant loss of aromaticity/gain of antiaromaticity, as compared with the respective monoions. The antiaromaticity of bifluorenylidene dication (6), relative to that of two fluorenyl cations (12a), is only slightly enhanced as compared with the aromaticity of biphenalenylidene dication ((E)-7)) relative to that of two phenalenyl cations (13a). In particular, the homodesmotic reaction 6 + 2.13a = (E)-7 + 2.12a is only slightly exothermic, DeltaE(Tot) = -6.0 kJ/mol. The energetic effect of the analogous reaction involving anions 9 + 2.15a = (E)-10 + 2.14a is even smaller, DeltaE(Tot) = -3.4 kJ/mol. Bifluorenylidene dianion (9) and 1,1'-biphenalenylidene dianion ((E)-10) are aromatic, but the employed criteria disagree about their relative aromaticity. The electronic and structural properties of heteromerous dication 8 and dianion 11 lie between those of the homomerous diions. Thus, dications 6-8 and dianions 9-11 form a continuum of aromaticity/antiaromaticity.

Orbital Interactions and Solvent Effects Determining the Stability of Condensed Cyclopentadienides in Solution

The structure and the stability of various cyclopentadienides, which involve 6pi, 10pi, 14pi, and 22pi electrons, are investigated from computations at various levels of theory as well as from orbital interaction analyses. The reason that some of the cyclopentadienides are stabilized and others are destabilized by the introduction of aromatic rings is discussed in terms of absolute hardness and orbital interaction. Cyclopentadienide, a special 6pi-electron system, has the largest value of absolute hardness among the condensed cyclopentadienides investigated; thus this carbanion resists both oxidation and reduction most strongly. The absolute hardness decreases when aromatic rings are introduced to cyclopentadienide to form condensed cyclopentadienides, depending on the way they are connected. Computed values of the ionization potential and oxidation potentials measured in solution have a linear correlation within isomers of the same size, but are not in agreement for different sets of isomers. Solvent effects on the ionization potential are assessed by performing self-consistent reaction field calculations, the results being in excellent agreement with experiments. It is demonstrated that the solvent effects are significant in small cyclopentadienides of 6pi- and 10pi-electron systems, compared to larger ones and that addition of condensed aromatic rings intrinsically stabilizes the formed condensed cyclopentadienides with respect to ionization potential.