Longest C–C Single Bond among Neutral Hydrocarbons with a Bond Length beyond 1.8 Å

Ishigaki, Y.; Shimajiri, T.; Takeda, T.; Katoono, R.; Suzuki, T., Chem 2018, 4, 795-806
Contributed by Steven Bacharach

Reposted from Computational Organic Chemistry with permission

This is a third post in a series dealing with very short or very long distances between atoms. Ishigaki, Shimajiri, Takeda, Katoono, and Suzuki have prepared three related analogues of hexaphenylethane that all have long C-C bonds.¹ The idea is to create a core by fusing two adjacent phenyls into a naphylene, and then protect the long C-C bond through a shell made up of large aryl groups, 1. Fusing another 5-member ring opposite to the stretched C-C bond (2) creates a scissor effect that should stretch that bond further, even more so in the unsaturated version 3.

Their M062-x/6-31G* computations predict an increasing longer C-C bond (highlighted in blue in the above drawing): 1.730 Å in 1, 1.767 Å in 2, and 1.771 Å in 3. The structure of 3 is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 1. M06-2x/6-31G(d) optimized structure of 3.

These three compounds were synthesized, and characterized by IR and Raman spectroscopy. Their x-ray crystal structures at 200 K and 400K were also determined. The C-C distances are 1.742 Å (1), 1.773 Å (2) and 1.798 Å (3) with distances slightly longer at 400 K. These rank as the longest C-C bonds recorded.

References

1) Ishigaki, Y.; Shimajiri, T.; Takeda, T.; Katoono, R.; Suzuki, T., "Longest C–C Single Bond among Neutral Hydrocarbons with a Bond Length beyond 1.8 Å." Chem 2018, 4, 795-806, DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2018.01.011.

InChIs

1: InChI=1S/C40H26/c1-5-17-32-27(11-1)23-24-28-12-2-6-18-33(28)39(32)36-21-9-15-31-16-10-22-37(38(31)36)40(39)34-19-7-3-13-29(34)25-26-30-14-4-8-20-35(30)40/h1-26H
InChIKey=IFIFQLGAOZULMX-UHFFFAOYSA-N

2: InChI=1S/C42H28/c1-5-13-33-27(9-1)17-18-28-10-2-6-14-34(28)41(33)37-25-23-31-21-22-32-24-26-38(40(37)39(31)32)42(41)35-15-7-3-11-29(35)19-20-30-12-4-8-16-36(30)42/h1-20,23-26H,21-22H2
InChIKey=HSJDZFLRPWJAGF-UHFFFAOYSA-N

3: InChI=1S/C42H26/c1-5-13-33-27(9-1)17-18-28-10-2-6-14-34(28)41(33)37-25-23-31-21-22-32-24-26-38(40(37)39(31)32)42(41)35-15-7-3-11-29(35)19-20-30-12-4-8-16-36(30)42/h1-26H
InChIKey=QQYNKBIOZSXWGD-UHFFFAOYSA-N

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