The mechanism of formation of m-xylylene type biradicals produced by photolysis of polymethyl benzenes or dihalomethyl benzenes

Luminescent Radicals

Organic radicals are attracting increasing interest as a new class of molecular emitters. They demonstrate electronic excitation and relaxation dynamics based on their doublet or higher multiplet spin states, which are different from those based on singlet-triplet manifolds of conventional closed-shell molecules. Recent studies have disclosed luminescence properties and excited state dynamics unique to radicals, such as highly efficient electron-photon conversion in OLEDs, NIR emission, magnetoluminescence, an absence of heavy atom effect, and spin-dependent and spin-selective dynamics. These are difficult or sometimes impossible to achieve with closed-shell luminophores. This review focuses on luminescent organic radicals as an emerging photofunctional molecular system, and introduces the material developments, fundamental properties including luminescence, and photofunctions. Materials covered in this review range from monoradicals, radical oligomers, and radical polymers to metal complexes with radical ligands demonstrating radical-involved emission. In addition to stable radicals, transiently formed radicals generated in situ by external stimuli are introduced. This review shows that luminescent organic radicals have great potential to expand the chemical and spin spaces of luminescent molecular materials and thus broaden their applicability to photofunctional systems.

A high-spin diradical dianion and its bridged chemically switchable single-molecule magnet

Triplet diradicals have attracted tremendous attention due to their promising application in organic spintronics, organic magnets and spin filters. However, very few examples of triplet diradicals with singlet–triplet energy gaps (ΔE_ST) over 0.59 kcal mol⁻¹ (298 K) have been reported to date. In this work, we first proved that the dianion of 2,7-di-tert-butyl-pyrene-4,5,9,10-tetraone (2,7-tBu₂-PTO) was a triplet ground state diradical in the magnesium complex 1 with a singlet–triplet energy gap ΔE_ST = 0.94 kcal mol⁻¹ (473 K). This is a rare example of stable diradicals with singlet–triplet energy gaps exceeding the thermal energy at room temperature (298 K). Moreover, the iron analog 2 containing the 2,7-tBu₂-PTO diradical dianion was isolated, which was the first single-molecule magnet bridged by a diradical dianion. When 2 was doubly reduced to the dianion salt 2K2, single-molecule magnetism was switched off, highlighting the importance of diradicals in single-molecule magnetism.

We report a triplet diradical dianion in magnesium complex with ΔE_ST = 0.94 kcal mol⁻¹ (473 K). Its iron analog is the first single-molecule magnet bridged by a diradical dianion, and the SMM property is switched off through two-electron reduction.

Mechanism of an alcohol-trapping reaction in the direct and benzophenone-sensitized photodenitrogenation of a spiroepoxy-substituted azoalkane: solvent effects and stereochemical deuterium labeling

The spin-state-dependent reactivity, singlet versus triplet, of the 2-spiroepoxy-1,3-cyclopentane-1,3-diyl DR2 has been assessed through alcohol-trapping reactions for which the effect of solvent acidity on the product distribution of the alcohol trapping products 2 versus 3 + 4 and stereochemical deuterium-labeling studies have been performed. The proposed mechanism for the solvent effect on the product ratio (2/3 + 4) reveals the importance of the hydrogen-bonded intermediates I1 and I2 in the trapping reactions; the stereochemical deuterium-labeling results clarify the dipole structure trapped by the alcohol. The dipoles DP1 and DP2, in which the configuration between the epoxide oxygen and the deuterium atoms is retained, are inferred for the direct photodenitrogenation reactions (singlet state), whereas for the benzophenone-sensitized photoreactions (triplet state), after ISC, the ring-opened dipole DP3 is implied as the intermediate that is trapped by the alcohol.

One- vs two-photon processes in the photochemistry of 1,n-dihaloalkanes

1,n-Dihaloalkanes can be photochemical precursors of n-haloalkyl and -allyl radicals and cations, which are generated via one-photon processes. Time-resolved techniques have provided considerable information on the structures and reactivity of these intermediates. Low-temperature matrix isolation, two-laser two-color, laser-drop, and laser-jet photolysis techniques are powerful tools to photolyze haloalkyl radicals and to generate carbenes or biradicals via two-photon processes.