Octakis(dodecyl)phthalocyanines: Influence of Peripheral versus Non-Peripheral Substitution on Synthetic Routes, Spectroscopy and Electrochemical Behaviour

Non-peripherally octakis-substituted phthalocyanines (npPc’s), MPc(C12H25)8 with M = 2H (3) or Zn (4), as well as peripherally octakis-substituted phthalocyanines (pPc’s) with M = Zn (6), Mg (7) and 2H (8), were synthesized by cyclotetramerization of 3,6- (2) or 4,5-bis(dodecyl)phthalonitrile (5), template cyclotetramerization of precursor phthalonitriles in the presence of Zn or Mg, metal insertion into metal-free phthalocyanines, and removal of Mg or Zn from the phthalocyaninato coordination cavity. The more effective synthetic route towards pPc 8 was demetalation of 7. npPc’s were more soluble than pPc’s. The Q-band λmax of npPc’s was red-shifted with ca. 18 nm, compared to that of pPc’s. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) differentiated between N–H, Nmeso and Ncore nitrogen atoms for metal-free phthalocyanines. Binding energies were ca. 399.6, 398.2 and 397.7 eV respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) also showed zinc phthalocyanines 4 and 6 have four equivalent Nmeso and four equivalent N–Zn core nitrogens. In contrast, the Mg phthalocyanine 7 has two sets of core N atoms. One set involves two Ncore atoms strongly coordinated to Mg, while the other encompasses the two remaining Ncore atoms that are weakly associated with Mg. pPc’s 6, 7, and 8 have cyclic voltammetry features consistent with dimerization to form [Pc][Pc+] intermediates upon oxidation but npPc’s 3 and 4 do not. Metalation of metal-free pPc’s and npPc’s shifted all redox potentials to lower values

Synthesis, substitution kinetics, and electrochemistry of the first tetrathiafulvalene-containing beta-diketonato complexes of rhodium(I).

International audienceThe synthesis of the first rhodium(I) cyclooctadiene complexes containing tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) groups substituted on a beta-diketonato ligand in either the methine position (3 position), [Rh(cod)(H(3)CCOC{S-TTF-(MeS)(3)}COCH(3))] (3), or terminal position (1 position), [Rh(cod){(Me(3)-TTF)COCHCOCH(3)}] (4), is reported. The effect of the beta-diketonato substitution position on the kinetics of substitution of the TTF-containing beta-diketonato ligand with 1,10-phenanthroline from 3 and 4 to give [Rh(cod)(phen)](+), as well as on the electrochemical properties of 3 and 4, was investigated. Second-order substitution rate constants, k(2), in methanol were found to be almost independent of the substitution position, with 4 (k(2) = 2.09 x 10(3) dm(3) mol(-1) s(-1)) reacting only about twice as fast as 3. An appreciable solvent pathway in the substitution mechanism was only observed for 4 with k(s) = 42 s(-1). A complete mechanism for both substitution reactions is proposed. The electrochemistry of 3 and 4 in CH(2)Cl(2)/0.10 mol dm(-3) [N((n)Bu)(4)][B(C(6)F(5))(4)] showed three redox processes. Two of these were electrochemically reversible and are associated with the redox-active TTF group. For 3, TTF-based formal reduction potentials, E degrees', were observed at 0.082 and 0.659 V vs Fc/Fc(+), respectively; 4 exhibited them at -0.172 and 0.703 V vs Fc/Fc(+) at a scan rate of 100 mV s(-1). A Rh(II)/Rh(I) redox couple was observed at E degrees' = 0.89 V for 3, after both TTF oxidations were completed, and at 0.51 V for 4; this is between the two TTF redox processes. The more difficult oxidation of the Rh(I) center of 3 indicates more effective electron-withdrawing from the Rh(I) center to the first-oxidized TTF(+) group at the methine position of the beta-diketonato ligand of 3(+) than to the terminal-substituted TTF(+) group in 4(+)

Electrochemical and EPR studies of two substituted bis-cadmium tris-phthalocyanine complexes: elucidation of unexpectedly different free-radical character

The electronic and electron transfer behaviour of two examples of a recently discovered class of triple-decker sandwich complex based on three phthalocyanine ligands linked by two chelated cadmium ions has been investigated by EPR spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry, square wave voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry experiments. The two compounds, 1 and 2, differ in the location of the eight alkyl groups attached to each of the phthalocyanine rings; at the non-peripheral sites in 1 and the peripheral sites in 2. Quantitative comparison of the free radical character of 1 and 2 in solutions was undertaken by EPR spectroscopy and revealed that 1 exists as a mixture of s = 0 and s = ½ species, whereas compound 2 exists essentially as a spin ½ species alone. The electrochemical study of 1 and 2 was undertaken in both dichloromethane (CH2Cl2) and tetrahydrofuran (THF). The two compounds show comparable but subtly different redox behaviour which can only be attributed to the different locations of the substituents. Seventeen of the possible eighteen one-electron transfer processes could be identified for 1. The first oxidation wave for 2, both in THF and in CH2Cl2 solutions, was encountered at ca. 160 mV lower potential than for 1 implying that 2 is much easier to initially oxidise than 1. This finding provides a rationale for the EPR results described above. In separate experiments, oxidation of 1 and 2 as solutions and spin-coated film formulations was achieved using iodine and was characterised by significant changes in the visible region absorption spectra of the compounds

Neural Processing and Production of Gesture in Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate impairments in non-verbal communication, including gesturing and imitation deficits. Reduced sensitivity to biological motion (BM) in ASD may impair processing of dynamic social cues like gestures, which in turn may impede encoding and subsequent performance of these actions. Using both an fMRI task involving observation of action gestures and a charade style paradigm assessing gesture performance, this study examined the brain-behavior relationships between neural activity during gesture processing, gesturing abilities and social symptomology in a group of children and adolescents with and without ASD. Compared to typically developing (TD) controls, participants with ASD showed atypical sensitivity to movement in right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), a region implicated in action processing, and had poorer overall gesture performance with specific deficits in hand posture. The TD group showed associations between neural activity, gesture performance and social skills, that were weak or non-significant in the ASD group. These findings suggest that those with ASD demonstrate abnormalities in both processing and production of gestures and may reflect dysfunction in the mechanism underlying perception-action coupling resulting in atypical development of social and communicative skills

Electrochemical and spectroscopic detection of self-association of octa-alkyl phthalocyaninato cadmium compounds into dimeric species

The solution phase behaviour of non-peripherally substituted octa-hexyl cadmium phthalocyanine 3 and peripherally substituted octa-2-ethylhexyl cadmium phthalocyanine 4 has been investigated in fresh solutions of CH2Cl2, CHCl3-d1 and THF/THF-d8 using 1H NMR spectrometry, UV-Vis spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, square wave voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry. The compounds show an unexpected propensity to form dimeric species in CH2Cl2 and CHCl3-d1, and, in the case of 4, also to a lesser extent in THF/THF-d8. This phenomenon is not observed for their metal-free analogues 1 or 2. The electrochemical results provide particularly strong evidence for the dimeric structures. In particular both the first one-electron oxidation and one-electron reduction waves for 3 and 4, unlike those of 1 and 2, are split. This is consistent with sequential oxidation/reduction of the two Pc ligands within a dimer. The dimeric species are likely to be the immediate precursors of the recently discovered bis-cadmium tris-phthalocyanine triple-decker sandwich complexes 5 and 6 formed from 3 and 4 over a period of time. The electrochemical data for compounds 1–4 also show that (i) relative to the metal-free phthalocyanines, the cadmium phthalocyanines exhibit smaller formal reduction potentials for all but one of the observed electron transfer processes and (ii) the electron transfer processes associated with the peripherally substituted compounds, 2 and 4, are observed at more positive potentials than those for the corresponding non-peripherally substituted analogues 1 and 3