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Patrick W Fowler

Publications and source records attributed to Patrick W Fowler.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Design and synthesis of multi-component 18 pi annulenic fluorofullerene ensembles suitable for donor-acceptor applications.

A series of trannulene (all-trans annulene) derivatives of [60]fullerene have been prepared by reacting C(60)F(18) with methanetricarboxylate esters that incorporate a range of photoactive functions. All the compounds have the intense emerald-green colour of fullerene trannulenes, characterised by strong bands at ca. 612 and 667 nm. Single crystal X-ray studies show that the packing varies with the nature of the addend, attributable to differing steric effects. UV/vis absorption spectra display transitions of the respective fullerene and addend models, indicating absence of electronic interactions between them in the ground state. These now provide an extensive series for testing photoactive (light-harvesting) properties, with the exceptional properties of having strong visible light absorption. Their exceptional stability is attributed to the 18[small pi] aromatic circuit, inability to undergo nucleophilic substitution without disrupting this circuit, and a curved cage region that is shielded to reagents by the three bulky addends.

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A diatropic ring current in a fluorofullerene trannulene.

Ipsocentric current-density maps for a fluorofullerene derivative, C60F15H3, modelling the addition pattern of the experimentally characterised C60F15[CBr(CO2Et)2]3 which contains an [18]trans-annulene system, reveal a diamagnetic ring current dominated by the contribution of the four HOMO electrons, as in a classical (4n + 2) aromatic annulene.

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Diamagnetic and paramagnetic ring currents in expanded porphyrins.

Ipsocentric current density maps are computed at the coupled Hartree-Fock level in the 6-31G** basis set for the planar C(2v) B3LYP geometries of the expanded porphyrins, sapphyrin and orangarin. Both give clearly dominant global macrocyclic ring currents, but with opposite senses of circulation: in 22[small pi] sapphyrin, a diatropic current runs, with some bifurcation, around the conventional 22-centre delocalisation pathway; in 20[small pi] orangarin, a paratropic current runs around the inner 17-atom pathway. In agreement with the annulene analogy for these macrocycles, analysis of orbital contributions shows that in each case topology, energy and symmetry of the frontier orbitals together determine the macrocyclic ring current. In sapphryrin, 4-electron diamagnetism (aromaticity) arises from translationally allowed HOMO-LUMO excitations as in benzene itself; in orangarin, 2-electron paramagnetism (antiaromaticity) arises from rotationally allowed HOMO-LUMO excitations as in planarised cyclooctatetraene. The active orbitals invoked in the explanation of ring currents are those involved in the longstanding four-orbital model of porphyrin electronic spectra.

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The four-electron diamagnetic ring current of porphycene.

Porphycene, an isomer that can replace porphin in chemical and biochemical contexts, is predicted by ab initio calculation to exhibit a global diatropic pi ring current with bifurcation across the four pyrrole units of the macrocycle. Analysis of the orbital contributions to the current density in porphycene reveals that the global current, with its bifurcation feature, is attributable to the four electrons of the near-degenerate HOMO levels, the same set of active electrons that feature in the well-known four-orbital model of the electronic spectra of porphyrins. Integration of the current density gives 1H, 13C and 15N NMR shieldings that are compatible with the observed low-field shifts of peripheral and bridge protons and high-field shift of the internal NH protons, assignment of the 13C NMR spectrum and the single average 15N chemical shift resulting from rapid NH tautomerism. Geometries were calculated with the DFT B3LYP functional, the current density maps were calculated with the ipsocentric coupled-Hartree-Fock CTOCD-DZ method, and the shieldings with the CTOCD-PZ2 variant, all in the same 6-31G** basis.

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The energies of some isomers of C60F8: the use of experimental and theoretical considerations to limit candidate structures.

A survey of possible structures for the C60F8 molecule has been carried out, using both experimental (19F NMR data) and theoretical (structure-energy correlation) considerations to limit the number of isomers to be regarded as candidates for the previously isolated species. Several isomers are suggested as likely, with one low-energy structure in particular appearing to fulfill all the criteria better than the literature suggestion. Both this predicted isomer and that previously suggested have in common a sub-structure of a single fluorinated carbon atom surrounded by three vicinal fluorine neighbours together with a further pair of fluorine atoms added so as to generate a T-shaped motif.

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Topological rotational strengths as chirality descriptors for fullerenes.

A graph-theoretical procedure is proposed for assigning a chirality descriptor (the topological sign tau(+) or tau(-)) to each enantiomer of a chiral polyhedron, polyhedral molecule or graph, independently of any vertex labelling scheme. Model Cartesian coordinates and rotational strengths are obtained using only adjacency information; a generalised HOMO-LUMO rotational strength is used to associate a sign with a Schlegel diagram and the corresponding three-dimensional structure, polyhedron or molecule. The topological sign gives an unambiguous way of communicating the identity of an enantiomer. The mean-square topological rotational strength is a possible measure of the chirality content of a polyhedral graph or structure.

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Control of the diatropic pi ring current in strained benzenes: effects of annelation with cyclopropa, cyclobuta, and cyclobutadieno clamping groups.

Direct visualization of the pi current density maps of highly strained annelated benzenes containing cyclopropa, cyclobuta, and cyclobutadieno clamps, alone and in combination, using a reliable distributed-origin, coupled Hartree-Fock method, shows the robustness of the classical benzene diatropic pi ring current. When only saturated clamps are used, the benzene ring current is essentially unchanged. In contrast, annelation with one or more cyclobutadieno clamps disrupts the benzene ring current. Analysis of orbital contributions to the current density maps gives a unified account of these observations in terms of the nature of the HOMO-LUMO transition.

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Ring currents in a proposed system containing planar hexacoordinate carbon, CB(2-)(6).

Current-density maps at the coupled Hartree-Fock level calculated in the CTOCD (continuous transformation of origin of current density) approach demonstrate the magnetic response of the hypothetical planar hexacoordinate carbon species, CB(2-)(6). In contrast with the empty CB(2-)(6) framework, which supports paramagnetic currents, the carbon-containing species has a typical diamagnetic pi-ring current that circulates undisturbed by the central atom. In spite of the unconventional nature of the species, the properties of 6pi CB(2-)(6) and 4pi CB(2-)(6) can be rationalised with the same orbital model that accounts for the diamagnetic pi current of benzene and the paramagnetic pi current of planar cyclooctatetraene.

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