Stabilization of an m-xylylene-like p,p* triplet state by meta substitution of aryl ionic species with pi donors

ORGN 572

Arthur H. Winter, arthur_winter@hotmail.com and Daniel E. Falvey, falvey@umd.edu. Department of Chemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740
Density functional theory calculations (UB3LYP/6-31G(d,p)) were used to predict the singlet-triplet state energy gaps (DEST) for several different kinds of electron-deficient reactive intermediates, including arylnitrenium ions (Ar-NH+), benzyl cations (Ar-CH2+), aryl silylenium ions (Ar-SiH2+), and aryl oxenium ions (Ar-O+). Substituting the meta positions of these electron-deficient species with pi donors stabilizes a p,p* triplet state with an electronic structure analogous to the non-Kekule diradical m-xylylene. This electronic state was confirmed by viewing the Kohn-Sham orbital distributions, the Mulliken (and NPA) atomic spin densities, and geometries for the triplet states of these species. In most cases, substituting the meta position of these electron-deficient intermediates with strong pi donors (e.g. NMe2) was sufficient to make this p,p* triplet state the predicted ground electronic state. Experimental work to confirm this prediction will be discussed.