Dipolar Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Chromophores Containing Ferrocene, Octamethylferrocene, and Ruthenocene Donors and Strong ?-Acceptors: Crystal Structures and Comparison of ?-Donor Strengths.

ABSTRACT: Crystal structures have been determined for six dipolar polyene chromophores with metallocenyl - ferrocenyl (Fc), octamethylferrocenyl (Fc?), or ruthenocenyl (Rc) - donors and strong heterocyclic acceptors based on 1,3-diethyl-2-thiobarbituric acid or 3-dicyanomethylidene-2,3-dihydrobenzothiophene-1,1-dioxide. In each case, crystals were found to belong to centrosymmetric space groups. For one example, polymer-induced heteronucleation revealed the existence of two additional polymorphs, which were inactive in second-harmonic generation, suggesting that they were also centrosymmetric. The bond-length alternations between the formally double and single bonds of the polyene bridges are reduced compared to simple polyenes, indicating significant contribution from charge-separated resonance structures, although the metallocenes are not significantly distorted towards the [(?(6)-fulvene)(?(5)-cyclopentadienyl)metal(II)](+) extreme. DFT geometries are in excellent agreement with those determined crystallographically; while the ?-donor strengths of the three metallocenyl groups are insufficiently different to result in detectable differences in the crystallographic bond-length alternations, the DFT geometries, as well as DFT-calculations of partial charges for atoms, suggest that ?-donor strength decreases in the order Fc? ? Fc > Rc. NMR, IR and electrochemical evidence also suggests that octamethylferrocenyl is the stronger ?-donor, exhibiting similar ?-donor strength to a p-(dialkylamino)phenyl group, while ferrocenyl and ruthenocenyl show very similar ?-donor strengths to one another in chromophores of this type.

SUBMITTER: Kinnibrugh TL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2669306 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature