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Helical molecular redox actuators with pancake bonds?

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Abstract

In an attempt to design molecular electromechanical actuators with large deformation response, we present here three helicene-like compounds, which offer significant strain above 5 % due to two-electron charge transfer (CT). The shrinking induced by CT is a quantum mechanical orbital effect. A good π–π overlap across the helical pitch is critical for this type of actuation. The relevant overlap refers to frontier orbitals that are involved in the CT, and it has some features common with π–π stacking pancake bonds; however, these molecules do not represent all aspects of typical pancake bonding. This overlap is accompanied by a change in the bond length alternation pattern indicating significant change in π-conjugation. Additionally, two further helicene-like molecules included in this study also indicate large electromechanical actuation, but a simple orbital interpretation is not available in those cases.

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Acknowledgments

P. B. is grateful to the Fond d’aide à la mobilité étudiante (FAME) for a FAME/BMI traineeships grant and a Visiting Scientist Fellowship to Georgetown University. We thank the U S National Science Foundation for its support of this research at Georgetown University (Grant Number CHE-1006702). MK is member of the Georgetown Institute of Soft Matter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique, Unité de Chimie Physique Théorique et Structurale, Université de Namur, rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000, Namur, Belgium

    Pierre Beaujean

  2. Department of Chemistry and Institute of Soft Matter, Georgetown University, 37th and O Streets, NW, Washington, DC, 20057-1227, USA

    Pierre Beaujean & Miklos Kertesz

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  1. Pierre Beaujean
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  2. Miklos Kertesz
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Correspondence to Miklos Kertesz.

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Published as part of the special collection of articles “Festschrift in honour of P. R. Surjan”.

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Beaujean, P., Kertesz, M. Helical molecular redox actuators with pancake bonds?. Theor Chem Acc 134, 147 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00214-015-1750-3

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