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2-methoxytropone, (2), are described in the supporting
information, as are their specific characterizations.
The lifetimes of (I) in dichloromethane solution (1 ꢄ
10ꢃ5 mol lꢃ1) and in the crystalline state were investigated on
an UltraFast lifetime Spectrofluorometer (Delta flex).
Yellow needle-shaped crystals of (I) suitable for single-
crystal X-ray analysis were grown via slow evaporation from a
mixed solvent of dichloromethane and methanol (3:1 v/v) at
room temperature for 3 d. Elemental analysis (vario EL
elemental analyser) and themogravimetric differential scan-
ning calorimetry (SDT Q600 analyser, under a nitrogen flow,
10 K minꢃ1) investigations were carried out to determine the
amount of solvent in the crystal. Powder X-ray diffraction
studies were also carried out (Shimadzu XRD-7000) with
Cu Kꢃ radiation to analyse the phase purity of the bulk sample
of (I).
2.5. Electrochemical study
The electrochemical properties of (I) in acetonitrile
(CH3CN) were studied on a CHI 660D workstation (CH
Instruments Inc., China) with tetrabutylammonium hexa-
fluorophosphate (Bu4NPF6) (0.1 mol lꢃ1) as electrolyte. A
traditional three-electrode system, consisting of a bare GC
(È = 3.0 mm) working electrode, an Ag/AgCl (in 3.0 mol lꢃ1
KCl) reference electrode and a platinum wire auxiliary elec-
trode, was used. The scan rate was 100 mV sꢃ1
.
2.2. Refinement
3. Results and discussion
Crystal data, data collection and structure refinement
details are summarized in Table 1. C-bound H atoms were
placed in calculated positions and treated using a riding-model
3.1. Synthesis and characterization
Compound (I) was obtained in good yield as a pale-yellow
powder through the condensation reaction of one equivalent
of benzene-1,4-dicarboximidamide hydrochloride and three
equivalents of 2-methoxytropone. The chemical structure was
identified by 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectroscopies, and ESI–
MS (see supporting information). Compound (I) exhibits a
low solubility in most solvents, except dichloromethane,
chloroform and methanol, due to its expanded ꢀ-conjugated
structure with no hydrophilic substitutions.
The elemental analysis results (see x2.1) are well within the
margin of error, suggesting that almost no solvent molecules
exist in the crystal. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) shows
that there is a weight loss of only 0.8% below 473 K,
confirming the presence of little or no solvent in the crystal
(Fig. 1). From the powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) results,
we found that the patterns matched with the simulated results
very well, confirming the phase purity of the bulk sample used
for the other measurements (Fig. 2).
˚
approximation, with C—H = 0.93 A, and refined as riding,
with Uiso(H) = 1.2Ueq(C). A region of electron density was
removed using the SQUEEZE (Spek, 2015) procedure in
PLATON (Spek, 2009). SQUEEZE calculated two voids with
a volume of approximately 96 A occupied by 16 electrons per
unit cell.
3
˚
2.3. Computational methods
The crystal structure parameters of (I) were used in the
calculations without any optimization. All calculations were
performed using GAUSSIAN09 software (Revision A.02;
Frisch et al., 2009). Density functional theory (DFT) calcula-
tions were carried out at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level for the
gas state. The polarizability, the first hyperpolarizability tensor
components, the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)
and the lowest occupied molecular orbital (LUMO) were all
displayed based on the crystal structure parameters without
any optimization, and details are presented in the supporting
information.
2.4. UV–Vis absorption and fluorescence studies
The general photophysical properties of (I) in solution were
characterized in dichloromethane, including the UV–Vis
absorption (8 ꢄ 10ꢃ5 mol lꢃ1) and fluorescence excitation/
emission (1 ꢄ 10ꢃ5 mol lꢃ1) spectra. The UV–Vis absorption
spectrum was recorded on a Varian Cary 50 UV–Vis spec-
trophotometer and the fluorescence spectra were recorded on
an FLS980 steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spec-
trophotometer.
The solid-state photophysical properties of (I) were also
studied. The UV–Vis absorption spectrum was recorded on a
Shimazu UV3600Plus UV–Vis–NIR (NIR is near IR) spec-
trophotometer equipped with an integrating sphere. The
fluorescence emission spectrum was recorded on an FLS980
steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectrophotom-
eter.
Figure 2
Comparison of the experimental PXRD pattern (red line) with the
simulated pattern from the single-crystal structure (black line) for
compound (I).
ꢁ
Acta Cryst. (2018). C74, 171–176
Sun et al.
1,4-Bis(1,3-diazaazulen-2-yl)benzene 173