Oxidative coupling and polymerization of pyrroles

Computational Prediction of 1 H and 13 C NMR Chemical Shifts for Protonated Alkylpyrroles: Electron Correlation and Not Solvation is the Salvation

Prediction of chemical shifts in organic cations is known to be a challenge. In this article we meet this challenge for α-protonated alkylpyrroles, a class of compounds not yet studied in this context, and present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the ¹³ C and ¹ H chemical shifts in three selected pyrroles. We have investigated the importance of the solvation model, basis set, and quantum chemical method with the goal of developing a simple computational protocol, which allows prediction of ¹³ C and ¹ H chemical shifts with sufficient accuracy for identifying such compounds in mixtures. We find that density functional theory with the B3LYP functional is not sufficient for reproducing all ¹³ C chemical shifts, whereas already the simplest correlated wave function model, Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2), leads to almost perfect agreement with the experimental data. Treatment of solvent effects generally improves the agreement with experiment to some extent and can in most cases be accomplished by a simple polarizable continuum model. The only exception is the NH proton, which requires inclusion of explicit solvent molecules in the calculation.

Electron-Transfer Oxidation Properties of Substituted Bi-, Ter-, and Quaterpyrroles

A set of open-chain fully substituted bi-, ter-, and quaterpyrroles bearing analogous substituents in the alpha- and beta-pyrrolic positions were studied as a function of their chain length, subunit number, and size of potential conjugation pathway by means of cyclic voltammetry, EPR, and UV-vis spectroelectrochemistry. A comparison of E1/2 values for the first one-electron abstraction of bipyrrole 1 (1.07 V), terpyrrole 2 (0.67 V), and quaterpyrrole 3 (0.44 V) demonstrate clearly that the longer oligopyrroles are easier to oxidize. A strong absorption band is observed in the visible region when terpyrrole 2 is subject to one-electron oxidation, growing in at 856 nm accompanied by a shoulder at 778 nm. These strong absorptions in the visible region of the spectrum are in sharp contrast with the absence of bands in the red region when the bipyrrole 1 is subject to a similar one-electron oxidation and this can be explained by the presence of a longer conjugation pathway in the singly oxidized forms of 2 as was confirmed by EPR spectroscopy. The EPR spectra of 1*+, 2*+, and 3*+ indicate that the unpaired electron is more delocalized on the pyrroles with a longer conjugation and that the more the unpaired electron is delocalized, the faster is the electron exchange rate.

On the Origin of the So-Called Nucleation Loop during Electropolymerization of Conducting Polymers

During the potentiodynamic preparation of conducting polymers, cyclic voltammograms of many pi-conjugated monomers and oligomers often show a marked crossing or loop effect. The so-called "nucleation loop" of the first cycle has been ascribed to the nucleation process requiring an activation energy provided by an overpotential. This paper presents cyclic voltammograms of pi-systems with trace crossing as well as loop effects that suggest that the homogeneous formation of oligomeric redoxactive follow-up products from the starting species is responsible for this occurrence. As the investigated species are typical starting components of resulting oligomers or polymers, all these findings are evidence that similar mechanisms also hold for the formation of many other classical polymers with a "nucleation loop" like polypyrrole, and that the true reason for the nucleation loop is the comproportionation reaction between an oligomeric follow-up product and the starting "monomer".