Radical cations symmetry

The Hamiltonian provides a suitable analytic form that can be fitted to the adiabatic surfaces obtained from quantum chemical calculations. As a simple example we take the butatriene molecule. In its neutral ground state it is a planar molecule with D2/1 symmetry. The lowest two states of the radical cation, responsible for the first two bands in the photoelectron spectrum, are and... 

The 327-670 GHz EPR spectra of canthaxanthin radical cation were resolved into two principal components of the g-tensor (Konovalova et al. 1999). Spectral simulations indicated this to be the result of g-anisotropy where gn=2.0032 and gi=2.0023. This type of g-tensor is consistent with the theory for polyacene rc-radical cations (Stone 1964), which states that the difference gxx gyy decreases with increasing chain length. When gxx-gyy approaches zero, the g-tensor becomes cylindrically symmetrical with gxx=gyy=g and gzz=gn. The cylindrical symmetry for the all-trans carotenoids is not surprising because these molecules are long straight chain polyenes. This also demonstrates that the symmetrical unresolved EPR line at 9 GHz is due to a carotenoid Jt-radical cation with electron density distributed throughout the whole chain of double bonds as predicted by RHF-INDO/SP molecular orbital calculations. The lack of temperature... 

Determination of g-tensor components from resolved 327-670 GHz EPR spectra allows differentiation between carotenoid radical cations and other C-H jt-radicals which possess different symmetry. The principal components of the g-tensor for Car"1 differ from those of other photosynthetic RC primary donor radical cations, which are practically identical within experimental error (Table 9.2) (Robinson et al. 1985, Kispert et al. 1987, Burghaus et al. 1991, Klette et al. 1993, Bratt et al. 1997) and exhibit large differences between gxx and gyy values. 

One of the most commonly studied systems involves the adsorption of polynuclear aromatic compounds on amorphous or certain crystalline silica-alumina catalysts. The aromatic compounds such as anthracene, perylene, and naphthalene are characterized by low ionization potentials, and upon adsorption they form paramagnetic species which are generally attributed to the appropriate cation radical (69, 70). An analysis of the well-resolved spectrum of perylene on silica-alumina shows that the proton hyperfine coupling constants are shifted by about four percent from the corresponding values obtained when the radical cation is prepared in H2SO4 (71). The linewidth and symmetry require that the motion is appreciable and that the correlation times are comparable to those found in solution. 

This is the case for the quadricyclane - to norbornadiene" reaction. Although the C2K reaction path provides an attractive interpretational tool for understanding the progress of this reaction, its highest point represents a conical intersection at which the two relevant states have the same energy at the same geometry. This point cannot be a transition state, so that lowering the symmetry in any direction leads to a stabilization. The result is an asynchronous reaction path in which one of the two cyclopropane bonds is broken first to form the biradical-like transition state la. The second bond can then break to form the norbornadiene radical cation 2. 

Itoh and coworkers (13) have reported RR spectra for radical cations of metallo-TPP s, all of which form a2u radicals, and have noted that the observed downshift of V4 is contrary to the orbital symmetry argument. In the case of TPP s, there appears to be no band which shifts up on radical formation, analogous to V2 of the OEP a2u radicals. 

The structure of the corresponding radical cations should be determined by the symmetry of the two fragment FMOs at the points of union. The butadiene HOMO is antisymmetric at the positions of attachment in the norcaradiene framework, it may interact with the antisymmetric cyclopropane HOMO (as shown above). Indeed, norcaradiene derivatives provide the most promising examples of radical... 

Many of the reactions discussed are not suitable to establish such a relationship, either because of the general stereochemical course of the reaction type, or because of the inherent symmetry of the substrate. Any reaction in which the pyramidal sp hybridized cyclopropane centers are converted to planar sp hybridized ones will lose any memory of the radical cation chirality or stereochemistry, unless it is transferred to a new chiral center generated in the course of the conversion. On the other hand, there are several reaction types which, given appropriate substrates, may be used to probe the stereochemical course of a cyclopropane radical cation reaction. For example, several hydrogen migrations have shown elements of stereoselectivity. Similarly, oxygenation reactions may have the potential to reveal some degree of stereoselectivity. 

Fluorescence was observed for the TMB family such as 3,5-dimethoxyphenol, l,3-dihydroxy-5-methoxybenzene (5-methoxyresorcinol), l-acetoxy-3,5-dimethoxyben-zene, and l,3,5-trimethoxy-2-methylbenzene. These results indicated that complete symmetry of the substitution on O atoms is not necessary to observe fluorescence from the TMB family, and that the variation of parent molecules of fluorescent radical cation is possibly performed [153]. Fluorescence was also detected from hexamethxybenzene as an example of pseudo-Dgh molecules. The discussion of the symmetry has been described here on the fluorescence from fluorobenzenes in the vapor-phase or noble gas matrices. 

In the 1930s, Michaelis compared radical cations with trivalent-carbon or divalent-nitrogen intermediates using potentiometric methods. He rationalized their unusual stability as follows The fact that such radicals are capable of existence at all, can be attributed to a particular symmetry of structure resulting in resonance a... 

In contrast, the radical cation of the tetracychc system is significantly distorted The parent system has D2d symmetry and a b2 HOMO, whereas the radical cation is distorted toward 2 equiv structures of Cav symmetry ( E), with a two-center three-electron N-N bond (3 +). The ESR data (an = 0.709 mT, 4N ah = 0.768 mT, 8H, N—C—N ah = 0.414 mT, 8H, N—C—support the rapid interconversion of the two structures. The structure of 3 " is one of many doubly or multiply bridged diaza compounds forming three-electron N—N bonds (e.g., 4 " ). Many additional examples involving three-electron S—S or I I bonds are also known. Dioxetane radical cations (e.g., 5 ), characterized by ESR spectroscopy as intermediates in oxygenations (cf.. Section 5), contain analogous three-electron 0—0 bonds. 

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