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.

2020, Krylov, Denis, Velkos, Georgios, Chen, Chia-Hsiang, Büchner, Bernd, Kostanyan, Aram, Greber, Thomas, Avdoshenko, Stanislav M., Popov, Alexey A.

Two isomers of metallofullerene Dy2S@C82 with sulfur-bridged Dy ions exhibit broad magnetic hysteresis with sharp steps at sub-Kelvin temperature. Analysis of the level crossing events for different orientations of a magnetic field showed that even in powder samples, the hysteresis steps caused by quantum tunneling of magnetization can provide precise information on the strength of intramolecular Dy⋯Dy interactions. A comparison of different methods to determine the energy difference between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic states showed that sub-Kelvin hysteresis gives the most robust and reliable values. The ground state in Dy2S@C82 has ferromagnetic coupling of Dy magnetic moments, whereas the state with antiferromagnetic coupling in Cs and C3v cage isomers is 10.7 and 5.1 cm-1 higher, respectively. The value for the Cs isomer is among the highest found in metallofullerenes and is considerably larger than that reported in non-fullerene dinuclear molecular magnets. Magnetization relaxation times measured in zero magnetic field at sub-Kelvin temperatures tend to level off near 900 and 3200 s in Cs and C3v isomers. These times correspond to the quantum tunneling relaxation mechanism, in which the whole magnetic moment of the Dy2S@C82 molecule flips at once as a single entity. © the Partner Organisations.