2023, Mang, André, Rotthowe, Nils, Beltako, Katawoura, Linseis, Michael, Pauly, Fabian, Winter, Rainer F.

The ability to predict the conductive behaviour of molecules, connected to macroscopic electrodes, represents a crucial prerequisite for the design of nanoscale electronic devices. In this work, we investigate whether the notion of a negative relation between conductance and aromaticity (the so-called NRCA rule) also pertains to quasi-aromatic and metallaaromatic chelates derived from dibenzoylmethane (DBM) and Lewis acids (LAs) that either do or do not contribute two extra dπ electrons to the central resonance-stabilised β-ketoenolate binding pocket. We therefore synthesised a family of methylthio-functionalised DBM coordination compounds and subjected them, along with their truly aromatic terphenyl and 4,6-diphenylpyrimidine congeners, to scanning tunneling microscope break-junction (STM-BJ) experiments on gold nanoelectrodes. All molecules share the common motif of three π-conjugated, six-membered, planar rings with a meta-configuration at the central ring. According to our results, their molecular conductances fall within a factor of ca. 9 in an ordering aromatic < metallaaromatic < quasi-aromatic. The experimental trends are rationalised by quantum transport calculations based on density functional theory (DFT).

2019-02-18, Hassenrück, Christopher, Mang, André, Winter, Rainer F.

2022-11, Mang, André, Linseis, Michael, Winter, Rainer F.

We report the synthesis and X-ray structures of four Rh 2 (O 2 Ac) 4 (L Ax ) 2 (OAc = acteate, CH 3 COO - ) paddle-wheel complexes ( C1 - C4 ) with methylthio-modified axial ligands L Ax derived from benzamidine ( L1 ), anilinopyrimidine ( L2 ) or isothiourea ( L3 , L4 ) that are capable of forming N‑H×××O hydrogen bonds to the equatorially bridging acetate ligands. This was done with the aim to suppress dissociation of the axial ligands and to make the complexes amenable to single-molecule conductance measurements in a scanning tunneling microscope break-junction (STM-BJ) setup. The characteristic spectroscopic features (NMR, IR, vis), crystal structures, the hydrogen-bonding motifs and a DFT-based screening of their frontier molecular orbitals are presented. Our calculations suggest that hydrogen-bonding stabilizes axial ligand binding by 20kJ/mol to 30 kJ/mol and that the HOMO of the rhodium paddle-wheels is closer to the Au Fermi level than the LUMO, so that the rhodium paddle-wheels are expected to constitute hole conductors.

2018-08-31, Bitter, Stefan, Kunkel, Marius, Burkart, Lisa, Mang, André, Winter, Rainer F., Polarz, Sebastian

Surfactants are functional molecules comprising a water-compatible head group and a hydrophobic tail. One of their features is the formation of self-assembled structures in contact with water, for instance, micelles, vesicles, or lyotropic liquid crystals. One way to increase the functionality of surfactants is to implement moieties containing transition-metal species. Ferrocene-based surfactants represent an excellent example because of the distinguished redox features. In most existing ferrocene-based amphiphiles, an alkyl chain is classically used as the hydrophobic tail. We report the synthesis and properties of 1-triisopropylsilylethynyl-1′-trimethylammoniummethylferrocene (FcNMe₃TIPS). In FcNMe₃TIPS, ferrocene is part of the head group (Gemini design) but is also attached to a (protected) π-conjugated ethynyl group. Although this architecture differs from that of classical amphiphiles and those of other ferrocene-based amphiphiles, the compound shows marked surfactant properties comparable to those of lipids, exhibiting a very low value of critical aggregation concentration in water (cac = 0.03 mM). It forms classical micelles only in a very narrow concentration range, which then convert into monolayer vesicles. Unlike classical surfactants, aggregates already form at a very low concentration, far beneath that required for the formation of a monolayer at the air–water interface. At even higher concentration, FcNMe₃TIPS forms lyotropic liquid crystals, not only in contact with water, but also in a variety of organic solvents. As an additional intriguing feature, FcNMe₃TIPS is amenable to a range of further modification reactions. The TIPS group is easily cleaved, and the resulting ethynyl function can be used to construct heterobimetallic platinum-ferrocene conjugates with trans-Pt(PEt₃)₂X (X = Cl, I) complex entities, leading to a heterobimetallic surfactant. We also found that the benzylic α-position of FcNMe₃TIPS is rather reactive and that the attached ammonium group can be exchanged by other substituents (e.g., −CN), which offers additional opportunities for further functionalization. Although FcNMe₃TIPS is reversibly oxidized in voltammetric and UV–vis spectroelectrochemical experiments, the high reactivity at the α-position is also responsible for the instability of the corresponding ferrocenium ion, leading to a polymerization reaction.

2019-08-06, Irmler, Peter, Gogesch, Franciska S., Mang, André, Bodensteiner, Michael, Larsen, Christopher B., Wenger, Oliver S., Winter, Rainer F.