Issue 11, 2023

Experimental and theoretical elucidation of SPAAC kinetics for strained alkyne-containing cycloparaphenylenes

Abstract

Tuning strained alkyne reactivity via organic synthesis has evolved into a burgeoning field of study largely focused on cyclooctyne, wherein physical organic chemistry helps guide rational molecular design to produce molecules with intriguing properties. Concurrent research in the field of carbon nanomaterials has produced new types of strained alkyne macrocycles, such as cycloparaphenyleneacetylenes, that possess uniquely curved aromatic π systems but hover on the edge of stability. In 2018, we introduced a strained alkyne scaffold that marries the synthetic accessibility and stability of cyclooctyne with the curved π system of carbon nanomaterials. These molecules are strained alkyne-containing cycloparaphenylenes (or [n+1]CPPs), which have been shown to possess size-dependent reactivity as well as the classic characteristics of the unfunctionalized parent CPP, such as a tunable HOMO–LUMO gap and bright fluorescence for large sizes. Herein, we elaborate further on this scaffold, introducing two modifications to the original design and fully characterizing the kinetics of the strain-promoted azide–alkyne cycloaddition (SPAAC) for each [n+1]CPP with a model azide. Additionally, we explain how electronic (the incorporation of fluorine atoms) and strain (a meta linkage which heightens local strain at the alkyne) modulations affect SPAAC reactivity via the distortion–interaction computational model. Altogether, these results indicate that through a modular synthesis and rational chemical design, we have developed a new family of tunable and inherently fluorescent strained alkyne carbon nanomaterials.

Graphical abstract: Experimental and theoretical elucidation of SPAAC kinetics for strained alkyne-containing cycloparaphenylenes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
09 dec 2022
Accepted
21 feb 2023
First published
21 feb 2023
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2023,14, 2839-2848

Experimental and theoretical elucidation of SPAAC kinetics for strained alkyne-containing cycloparaphenylenes

J. M. Fehr, N. Myrthil, A. L. Garrison, T. W. Price, S. A. Lopez and R. Jasti, Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 2839 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC06816H

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