2020, Intorp, S.N., Hodecker, M., Müller, M., Tverskoy, O., Rosenkranz, M., Dmitrieva, E., Popov, A.A., Rominger, F., Freudenberg, J., Dreuw, A., Bunz, U.H.F.

Quinoidal azaacenes with almost pure diradical character (y=0.95 to y=0.99) were synthesized. All compounds exhibit paramagnetic behavior investigated by EPR and NMR spectroscopy, and SQUID measurements, revealing thermally populated triplet states with an extremely low-energy gap ΔEST′ of 0.58 to 1.0 kcal mol−1. The species are persistent in solution (half-life≈14–21 h) and in the solid state they are stable for weeks.

2020, Bläsing, Kevin, Harloff, Jörg, Schulz, Axel, Stoffers, Alrik, Stoer, Philip, Villinger, Alexander

Although pure hydrogen cyanide can spontaneously polymerize or even explode, when initiated by small amounts of bases (e.g. CN−), the reaction of liquid HCN with [WCC]CN (WCC=weakly coordinating cation=Ph4P, Ph3PNPPh3=PNP) was investigated. Depending on the cation, it was possible to extract salts containing the formal dihydrogen tricyanide [CN(HCN)2]− and trihydrogen tetracyanide ions [CN(HCN)3]− from liquid HCN when a fast crystallization was carried out at low temperatures. X-ray structure elucidation revealed hydrogen-bridged linear [CN(HCN)2]− and Y-shaped [CN(HCN)3]− molecular ions in the crystal. Both anions can be considered members of highly labile cyanide-HCN solvates of the type [CN(HCN)n]− (n=1, 2, 3 …) as well as formal polypseudohalide ions. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.