Molecular Jahn-Teller distortion

The stoi7 begins with studies of the molecular Jahn-Teller effect in the late 1950s [1-3]. The Jahn-Teller theorems themselves [4,5] are 20 years older and static Jahn-Teller distortions of elecbonically degenerate species were well known and understood. Geomebic phase is, however, a dynamic phenomenon, associated with nuclear motions in the vicinity of a so-called conical intersection between potential energy surfaces. 

Ab initio molecular orbital calculations for the model systems RCN3S2 (R = H, NH2) show that these dithiatriazines are predicted to be ground state singlets with low-lying triplet excited states (Section 4.4). The singlet state is stabilized by a Jahn-Teller distortion from C2v to Cj symmetry. In this context the observed dimerization of these antiaromatic (eight r-electron) systems is readily understood. 

It is well known that crystal and electronic structures are interdependent and define the reactivity of chemical substances. In Section 1.4.2, it was noted that copper-porphyrin complex gives cation-radicals with significant reactivity at the molecular periphery. This reactivity appears to be that of nucleophilic attack on this cation-radical, which belongs to n-type. The literature sources note, however, some differences in the reactivity of individual positions. A frequently observed feature in these n-cation derivatives is the appearance of an alternating bond distance pattern in the inner ring of porphyrin consistent with a localized structure rather than the delocalized structure usually ascribed to cation-radical. A pseudo Jahn-Teller distortion has been named as a possible cause of this alternation, and it was revealed by X-ray diffraction method (Scheidt 2001). 

Note that in fact cyclobutadiene does not have degenerate, singly-occupied molecular orbitals, as a Jahn-Teller type (actually a pseudo-Jahn-Teller) distortion lowers its symmetry from square to rectangular and leads to a closed-shell paired-electron molecule [4]. 

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