No abstract

The reaction of 2,3‐diaminomaleonitrile with TeX4 (X = Cl, Br) in the presence of pyridine (Py) and/or triethylamine (Et3N) provided 3,4‐dicyano‐1,2,5‐telluradiazole (1), which was isolated neat and as stable adducts with pyridine, chloride, and bromide, namely, 1·2Py, (PyH)(1·Cl), (PyH)2(1·2Cl), (Et3NH)(1·Cl), (PyH)(1·Br), and (PyH)2(1·2Br). The molecular and supramolecular structures of these compounds were investigated by X‐ray crystallography. In the solid state, intermolecular associations through secondary Te···N interactions as well as N–H···X and N–H···N hydrogen bonding (X = Cl, Br) were observed. For (PyH)(1·Br), two polymorphs were found. The bonding situation of 1 and its pyridine and chloride adducts were investigated by MP2 calculations supplemented with the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) and natural bond orbital (NBO) analyses. The π symmetry of the frontier molecular orbitals (MOs) of 1 are preserved in the 1·2Py, (1·Cl–), and (1·2Cl–) adducts. In the chloride adducts, the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) can be described as an antibonding combination of the HOMO of 1 with the 3p atomic orbitals (AOs) of the chloride ions, whereas the lowest occupied molecular orbital (LUMO) resembles that of the parent 1. The charge transfer onto the heterocycle in the adducts increases in the order 1·2Py, (1·2Cl–), and (1·Cl–). QTAIM analyses of the adducts in the gas phase reveal closed‐shell interactions, whereas NBO analyses indicate negative hyperconjugation as the main formation pathway in these complexes. This description agrees with the Alcock model suggested for secondary bonding interactions between atoms of heavy p‐block elements and atoms with lone pairs.

New products of coordination of anions X– (X = F, I, PhS) to the Te atom of 3,4-dicyano-1,2,5-telluradiazole (1) were synthesized in high yields and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) as the salts [(Me2N)3S]+[1-F]− (9), [K(18-crown-6)]+[1-I]− (10), and [K(18-crown-6)]+[1-SPh]− ·THF (11), respectively. In the crystal lattice of 10, I atoms are bridging between two Te atoms. The bonding situation in anions of the salts 9–11 and some other adducts of 1,2,5-chalcogenadiazoles (chalcogen = S, Se, Te) and anions X– (X = F, Cl, Br, I, PhS) was studied using DFT, QTAIM, and NBO calculations, for 9–11 in combination with UV–vis, IR/Raman, and MS-ESI techniques. In all cases, the nature of the coordinate bond is negative hyperconjugation involving the transfer of electron density from X– to the heterocycles. The energy of the bonding interaction varies in a range from ∼30 kcal mol–1 comparable with energies of weak chemical bonds (e.g., internal N–N bond in organic azides) to ∼86 kcal mol –1 comparable with an energy of the C–C covalent bonds. The thermodynamics of the anions’ coordination to 1 and their Se and S congeners was also studied by quantum chemical calculations. The general character of this reaction and favorable thermodynamics in the case of heavier chalcogens (Se, Te) were established. Comparison with available data on acyclic analogues, i.e. the chalcogen diimines RNXNR, reveals that they also coordinate various anions but in addition reactions across XN (X = S, Se, Te) double bonds. Attempts to prepare the anion [1-TePh]− led to disintegration of 1. The only unambiguously identified product was a rather rare tellurocyanate that was characterized by XRD and elemental analysis as the salt [K(18-crown-6)]+[TeCN]− (13).

Organic light emitting diods (OLEDs) are revolutionizing display applications. In this aspect luminescent complexes of precious metals such as iridium, platinum, or ruthenium play a significant role. Emissive compounds of earth-abundant copper with equivalent performance are desired for practical, large-scale applications such as solid-state lighting and displays. Copper(I)-based emitters are well-known to suffer from weak spin-orbit coupling and a high reorganization energy upon photoexcitation. Here we report a cationic organo-copper cluster [Cu 4 (PCP) 3 ] + (PCP = 2,6-(PPh 2) 2 C 6 H 3) that features suppressed non-radiative decays, giving rise to a robust narrow-band green luminophore with a photoluminescent (PL) efficiency up to 93%. PL decay kinetics corroborated by DFT calculations reveal a complex emission mechanism involving contributions of both thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and phosphorescence. This robust compound was solution-processed into a thinfilm in prototype OLEDs with external quantum efficiency up to 11% and a narrow emission bandwidth (65 nm FWHM).

Variation of a bond angle can tune the reactivity of a chemical compound. To exemplify this concept, the nature of the siloxane linkage (Si-O-Si), the most abundant chemical bond in the earth's crust, was examined using theoretical calculations on the molecular model compounds H(3)SiOSiH(3), (H(3)Si)(2)OHOH, and (H(3)Si)(2)OHOSiH(3) and high-resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments on 5-dimethylhydroxysilyl-1,3-dihydro-1,1,3,3-tetramethyl-2,1,3-benzoxadisilole (1), a molecular compound that gives rise to the formation of very rare intermolecular hydrogen bonds between the silanol groups and the siloxane linkages. For theoretical calculations and experiment, electronic descriptors were derived from a topological analysis of the electron density (ED) distribution and the electron localization function (ELF). The topological analysis of an experimentally obtained ELF is a newly developed methodology. These descriptors reveal that the Si-O bond character and the basicity of the siloxane linkage strongly depend on the Si-O-Si angle. While the ionic bond character is dominant for Si-O bonds, covalent bond contributions become more significant and the basicity increases when the Si-O-Si angle is reduced from linearity to values near the tetrahedral angle. Thus, the existence of the exceptional intermolecular hydrogen bond observed for 1 can be explained by its very small strained Si-O-Si angle that adopts nearly a tetrahedral angle.