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    Covalency versus magnetic axiality in Nd molecular magnets: Nd-photoluminescence, strong ligand-field, and unprecedented nephelauxetic effect in fullerenes NdM2N@C80 (M = Sc, Lu, Y)
    (Cambridge : RSC, 2023) Yang, Wei; Rosenkranz, Marco; Velkos, Georgios; Ziegs, Frank; Dubrovin, Vasilii; Schiemenz, Sandra; Spree, Lukas; de Souza Barbosa, Matheus Felipe; Guillemard, Charles; Valvidares, Manuel; Büchner, Bernd; Liu, Fupin; Avdoshenko, Stanislav M.; Popov, Alexey A.
    Nd-based nitride clusterfullerenes NdM2N@C80 with rare-earth metals of different sizes (M = Sc, Y, Lu) were synthesized to elucidate the influence of the cluster composition, shape and internal strain on the structural and magnetic properties. Single crystal X-ray diffraction revealed a very short Nd-N bond length in NdSc2N@C80. For Lu and Y analogs, the further shortening of the Nd-N bond and pyramidalization of the NdM2N cluster are predicted by DFT calculations as a result of the increased cluster size and a strain caused by the limited size of the fullerene cage. The short distance between Nd and nitride ions leads to a very large ligand-field splitting of Nd3+ of 1100-1200 cm−1, while the variation of the NdM2N cluster composition and concomitant internal strain results in the noticeable modulation of the splitting, which could be directly assessed from the well-resolved fine structure in the Nd-based photoluminescence spectra of NdM2N@C80 clusterfullerenes. Photoluminescence measurements also revealed an unprecedentedly strong nephelauxetic effect, pointing to a high degree of covalency. The latter appears detrimental to the magnetic axiality despite the strong ligand field. As a result, the ground magnetic state has considerable transversal components of the pseudospin g-tensor, and the slow magnetic relaxation of NdSc2N@C80 could be observed by AC magnetometry only in the presence of a magnetic field. A combination of the well-resolved magneto-optical states and slow relaxation of magnetization suggests that Nd clusterfullerenes can be useful building blocks for magneto-photonic quantum technologies.
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    Wave-shaped polycyclic hydrocarbons with controlled aromaticity
    (Cambridge : RSC, 2019) Ma, Ji; Zhang, Ke; Schellhammer, Karl Sebastian; Fu, Yubin; Komber, Hartmut; Xu, Chi; Popov, Alexey A.; Hennersdorf, Felix; Weigand, Jan J.; Zhou, Shengqiang; Pisula, Wojciech; Ortmann, Frank; Berger, Reinhard; Liu, Junzhi; Feng, Xinliang
    Controlling the aromaticity and electronic properties of curved π-conjugated systems has been increasingly attractive for the development of novel functional materials for organic electronics. Herein, we demonstrate an efficient synthesis of two novel wave-shaped polycyclic hydrocarbons (PHs) 1 and 2 with 64 π-electrons. Among them, the wave-shaped π-conjugated carbon skeleton of 2 is unambiguously revealed by single-crystal X-ray crystallography analysis. The wave-shaped geometry is induced by steric congestion in the cove and fjord regions. Remarkably, the aromaticity of these two structural isomers can be tailored by the annulated direction of cyclopenta[b]fluorene units. Isomer 1 (Eoptg = 1.13 eV) behaves as a closed-shell compound with weakly antiaromatic feature, whereas its structural isomer 2 displays a highly stable tetraradical character (y0 = 0.23; y1 = 0.22; t1/2 = 91 days) with a narrow optical energy gap of 0.96 eV. Moreover, the curved PH 2 exhibits remarkable ambipolar charge transport in solution-processed organic thin-film transistors. Our research provides a new insight into the design and synthesis of stable functional curved aromatics with multiradical characters. © The Royal Society of Chemistry.
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    Stabilizing a three-center single-electron metal–metal bond in a fullerene cage
    (Cambridge : RSC, 2021) Jin, Fei; Xin, Jinpeng; Guan, Runnan; Xie, Xiao-Ming; Chen, Muqing; Zhang, Qianyan; Popov, Alexey A.; Xie, Su-Yuan; Yang, Shangfeng
    Trimetallic carbide clusterfullerenes (TCCFs) encapsulating a quinary M3C2 cluster represent a special family of endohedral fullerenes with an open-shell electronic configuration. Herein, a novel TCCF based on a medium-sized rare earth metal, dysprosium (Dy), is synthesized for the first time. The molecular structure of Dy3C2@Ih(7)-C80 determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction shows that the encapsulated Dy3C2 cluster adopts a bat ray configuration, in which the acetylide unit C2 is elevated above the Dy3 plane by ∼1.66 Å, while Dy–Dy distances are ∼3.4 Å. DFT computational analysis of the electronic structure reveals that the endohedral cluster has an unusual formal charge distribution of (Dy3)8+(C2)2−@C806− and features an unprecedented three-center single-electron Dy–Dy–Dy bond, which has never been reported for lanthanide compounds. Moreover, this electronic structure is different from that of the analogous Sc3C2@Ih(7)-C80 with a (Sc3)9+(C2)3−@C806− charge distribution and no metal–metal bonding.
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    A faux hawk fullerene with PCBM-like properties
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2014) San, Long K.; Bukovsky, Eric V.; Larson, Bryon W.; Whitaker, James B.; Deng, S.H.M.; Kopidakis, Nikos; Rumbles, Garry; Popov, Alexey A.; Chen, Yu-Sheng; Wang, Xue-Bin; Boltalina, Olga V.; Strauss, Steven H.
    Reaction of C60, C6F5CF2I, and SnH(n-Bu)3 produced, among other unidentified fullerene derivatives, the two new compounds 1,9-C60(CF2C6F5)H (1) and 1,9-C60(cyclo-CF2(2-C6F4)) (2). The highest isolated yield of 1 was 35% based on C60. Depending on the reaction conditions, the relative amounts of 1 and 2 generated in situ were as high as 85% and 71%, respectively, based on HPLC peak integration and summing over all fullerene species present other than unreacted C60. Compound 1 is thermally stable in 1,2-dichlorobenzene (oDCB) at 160 °C but was rapidly converted to 2 upon addition of Sn2(n-Bu)6 at this temperature. In contrast, complete conversion of 1 to 2 occurred within minutes, or hours, at 25 °C in 90/10 (v/v) PhCN/C6D6 by addition of stoichiometric, or sub-stoichiometric, amounts of proton sponge (PS) or cobaltocene (CoCp2). DFT calculations indicate that when 1 is deprotonated, the anion C60(CF2C6F5)− can undergo facile intramolecular SNAr annulation to form 2 with concomitant loss of F−. To our knowledge this is the first observation of a fullerene-cage carbanion acting as an SNAr nucleophile towards an aromatic C–F bond. The gas-phase electron affinity (EA) of 2 was determined to be 2.805(10) eV by low-temperature PES, higher by 0.12(1) eV than the EA of C60 and higher by 0.18(1) eV than the EA of phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). In contrast, the relative E1/2(0/−) values of 2 and C60, −0.01(1) and 0.00(1) V, respectively, are virtually the same (on this scale, and under the same conditions, the E1/2(0/−) of PCBM is −0.09 V). Time-resolved microwave conductivity charge-carrier yield × mobility values for organic photovoltaic active-layer-type blends of 2 and poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) were comparable to those for equimolar blends of PCBM and P3HT. The structure of solvent-free crystals of 2 was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The number of nearest-neighbor fullerene–fullerene interactions with centroid⋯centroid (⊙⋯⊙) distances of ≤10.34 Å is significantly greater, and the average ⊙⋯⊙ distance is shorter, for 2 (10 nearest neighbors; ave. ⊙⋯⊙ distance = 10.09 Å) than for solvent-free crystals of PCBM (7 nearest neighbors; ave. ⊙⋯⊙ distance = 10.17 Å). Finally, the thermal stability of 2 was found to be far greater than that of PCBM.