Valence Tautomerism and Alkaline Properties of Global Aromatic Imine‐ and Methine‐Bridged all‐Benzenoid Macrocyclic Superpyrazine and Supertriazine
Abstract
Abstract The comprehensive understanding of the ground‐state electronic structures of all‐benzenoid macrocycles and their charged species, particularly those exhibiting global (anti)aromaticity, remains poorly resolved. Here, we present two imine‐ and methine‐bridged all‐benzenoid [6]cyclo‐ para ‐phenylenes SPAZ (superpyrazine) and STAZ (supertriazine)‐designed as π‐extended analogues of 1,4‐pyrazine and 1,3,5‐triazine, respectively. For the first time, we elucidate their unprecedented valence tautomerism between “super‐Kekulé” alternating benzenoid/quinoidal structures and a “super‐sextet” transient structure, mediated by a 30π azaannulene conjugated pathway. The aromatic stabilization energy of global aromatic delocalization would partially counterbalance the energy penalty for disrupting three benzenoid sextets. Further protonation studies demonstrate their alkaline characteristics (p K a = 0.97 for SPAZ ; 3.27 for STAZ ), with diprotonated SPAZ‐DH and monoprotonated STAZ‐MH adopting planarized geometries that amplify global aromaticity through charge‐induced structural constraints and enhanced π‐electron delocalization. Notably, two‐electron reduction generates a dianion SPAZ‐DA exhibiting 32π electron global antiaromaticity with amine N atom embedded aza[30]annulene pathway. These findings establish a framework for decoding electronic structure property relationships in all‐benzenoid macrocycles, offering insights into aromaticity modulated regulations through tautomerism, protonation, and redox switching.
Article Details
Authors (7)
Xinyue Tian
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials for Intelligent Sensing and Key Laboratory of Organic Integrated Circuits, Ministry of Education & Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences Department of Chemistry Institute of Molecular Aggregation Science Tianjin University No. 92 Weijin Road, Nankai District Tianjin 300072 China
Zekun Tong
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials for Intelligent Sensing and Key Laboratory of Organic Integrated Circuits, Ministry of Education & Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Institute of Molecular Aggregation Science
Yi Han
Tingxi Yu
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials for Intelligent Sensing and Key Laboratory of Organic Integrated Circuits, Ministry of Education & Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Institute of Molecular Aggregation Science
Johnathan Joo Cheng Lee
Department of Chemistry National University of Singapore 3 Science Drive 3 Singapore 117543 Singapore
Chunyan Chi
Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 3, 117543, Singapore
Shaoqiang Dong
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials for Intelligent Sensing and Key Laboratory of Organic Integrated Circuits, Ministry of Education & Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Institute of Molecular Aggregation Science