Probing Isomers of the Benzene Dication in a Low-Temperature Trap

Jašík, J.; Gerlich, D.; Roithová, J.  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 2960
Contributed by Steven Bachrach.
Reposted from Computational Organic Chemistry with permission

Benzene is certainly one of the most iconic chemical compounds – its planar hexagonal structure is represented often in popular images involving chemists, and its alternating single and double bonds the source of one of chemistry’s most mythic stories: Kekule’s dream of a snake biting its own tail. So while the structure of benzene is well-worn territory, what of the structure of the benzene dication? Jasik, Gerlich and Rithova probe that question using a combined experimental and computational approach.¹

The experiment involves generation of the benzene dication at low temperature and complexed
to helium. Then, using infrared predissociation spectroscopy (IRPD), they obtained a spectrum that suggested two different structures.

Next, employing MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ computations, they identified a number of possible geometries, and the two lowest energy singlet dications have the geometries shown in Figure 1. The first structure (1) has a six member ring, but the molecule is no longer planar. Lying a bit lower in energy is 2, having a pentagonal pyramid form. The combination of the computed IR spectra of each of these two structures matches up extremely well with the experimental spectrum.

1

2

Figure 1. MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ geometries of benzene dication 1 and 2.

References

(1) Jašík, J.; Gerlich, D.; Roithová, J. "Probing Isomers of the Benzene Dication in a Low-Temperature Trap," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 2960-2962, DOI: 10.1021/ja412109h.

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