Four monoferrocenyl tritylium derivatives with donor-substituted (OMe, NMe ) aryl rings are reported, along with their spectroscopic and electrochemical properties. All the complexes show a one-electron reduction and a quasi-reversible ferrocene oxidation at a very positive potential. Small quadrupole splittings, ΔE , in Mößbauer spectra agree with highly electron-deficient ferrocenes. Comparison of the experimental half-wave potentials for ferrocene oxidation, E (Fc/Fc ), with those estimated from established correlations of E (Fc/Fc ) with ΔE indicates that the E values of the anisyl-substituted congeners FcOMe and FcMeOMe are affected by Coulombic repulsion between the positive charges at the Fe ion and the neighboring methylium site. Electronic spectra are recorded and interpreted with the aid of quantum chemical calculations. UV/Vis spectroelectrochemical measurements as well as chemical reduction provide insight into the redox-induced color changes upon ferrocene oxidation or upon reduction to the neutral trityl radicals. The neutral radicals reversibly form EPR-silent dimers. This process is studied by temperature-dependent EPR spectroscopy, and thermodynamic data for their dimerization are determined. Experimental and quantum chemical data suggest that the dimers assume classical hexaarylethane structures as opposed to normal or "offset" Jacobson-Nauta-type structures.

We present four new tetraruthenium macrocycles built from two 1,4-divinylphenylene diruthenium and two isophthalic acid building blocks with peripheral, potentially mono- or tridentate donor functions attached to the isophthalic linkers. These macrocycles are characterized by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and, in the case of the thioacetyl-appended complex 4, by X-ray crystallography. Cyclic and square wave voltammetry establish that the macrocycles can be oxidized in four consecutive redox steps that come as two pairs of two closely spaced one-electron waves. Spectroscopic changes observed during IR and UV/Vis/NIR spectroelectrochemical experiments (NIR = near infrared) show that the isophthalate linkers insulate the electroactive divinylphenylene diruthenium moieties against each other. The macrocycles exhibit nevertheless pronounced polyelectrochromism with highly intense absorptions in the Vis (2+/4+ states) and the NIR (2+ states) with extinction coefficients of up to >100,000 M−1·cm−1. The strong absorptivity enhancement with respect to the individual divinylphenylene diruthenium building blocks is attributed to conformational restrictions imposed by the macrocycle backbone. Moreover, the di- and tetracations of these macrocycles are paramagnetic as revealed by EPR spectroscopy.

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We have prepared and studied extremely electron‐poor, deeply colored dicationic 1,1'‐bis(diarylmethylium)‐substituted ferrocenes [(η5‐C5H4‐CAr2)2Fe]2+ with various aryl substituents as their [B{C6H3(CF3)2‐3,5}4]– salts. Due to the strong acceptor substitution, the redox potential for the ferrocene‐based oxidation of the anisyl‐ or 2‐methylanisyl‐substituted congeners 1b2+ and 1c2+ is close to or even surpasses that of the second oxidation of parent ferrocene, i.e. the Cp2Fe+/2+ couple. The strongly Lewis‐acidic character of these complexes is manifest through strong interactions with donor solvents, which lead to a significant reduction of the intensities of the charge‐transfer bands in their electronic spectra and to solvatochromism. The reduced forms of the complexes tend to dimerize or oligomerize as revealed by EPR spectroscopy. Direduced 1b selectively reacts with molecular oxygen to form a peroxo‐bis(diarylmethyl)[4]ferrocenophane, which was also characterized by X‐ray crystallography.

Four new polyelectrochromic ferrocenyl‐substituted tritylium ions are presented. They feature oxidation state‐dependent charge‐transfer excitations from the respective aryl or ferrocenyl donors to the tritylium and, after oxidation, ferrocenium acceptors. The dimerization of the corresponding one‐electron reduced neutral trityl radicals to hexaarylethanes has been studied by temperature‐dependent EPR spectroscopy and the thermodynamic parameters for this process were determined. For more information, see the Full Paper by R. F. Winter et al. on page 12524 ff.