Cross Conjugation in Polyenes and Related
Article Cite This: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 6030−6047 pubs.acs.org/JACS Cross Conjugation in Polyenes and Related Hydrocarbons: What Can Be Learned from Valence Bond Theory about Single-Molecule Conductance? † † ‡ § ‡ ∥ ⊥ Junjing Gu, Wei Wu,*, Thijs Stuyver,*, , David Danovich, Roald Hoffmann,*, Yuta Tsuji, ‡ and Sason Shaik*, † State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, iChEM, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361005, China ‡ Department of Organic Chemistry and the Lise Meitner-Minerva Centre for Computational Quantum Chemistry, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel § Algemene Chemie, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium ∥ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Baker Laboratory, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, United States ⊥ Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering and IRCCS, Kyushu University, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan *S Supporting Information ABSTRACT: This study examined the nature of the electronic structure of representative cross-conjugated poly- enes from a valence bond (VB) perspective. Our VBSCF calculations on a prototypical dendralene model reveal a remarkable inhibition of the delocalization compared to linear polyenes. Especially along the C−C backbone, the delocaliza- tion is virtually quenched so that these compounds can essentially be considered as sets of isolated butadiene units. In direct contrast to the dendralene chains, quinodimethane compounds exhibit an enhancement in their delocalization compared to linear polyenes. We demonstrate that this quenching/enhancement of the delocalization is inherently connected to the relative weights of specific types of long- bond VB structures. From our ab initio treatment, many localization/delocalization-related concepts and phenomena, central to both organic chemistry and single-molecule electronics, emerge.
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