Synthesis of macrocyclic molecular rods as potential electronic devices

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/ejoc.200600336

The design and synthesis of the macrocycles 1 and 2 as model compounds for the investigation of negative differential conductance phenomena in molecular junctions are reported. The macrocycles 1 and 2 comprise a molecular rod subunit consisting of three ethynyl-linked phenyl rings. While the rotational freedom along the rod axis of both terminal phenyl rings is limited by the macrocyclic frame, the central phenyl ring is revolving. The rod substructure is terminally functionalized with acetyl-protected thiol groups to enable its immobilization between gold contacts. The central phenyl ring is functionalized with one and two nitro groups for 1 and 2, respectively. The nitro groups are of particular importance as i) both macrocycles are model compounds to investigate a hypothetical intramolecular interaction of the nitro group with the opposite macrocyclic subunits and ii) the nitro group(s) result in limited thermal stability of the compounds due to the intramolecular rearrangement to macrocycles comprising isatogen subunits. These highly functionalized macrocycles have been assembled by acetylene scaffolding strategies in combination with functional group transformation chemistry. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2006.