s-Indacene Revisited: Modular Synthesis and Modulation of Structures and Molecular Orbitals of Hexaaryl Derivatives

Though s-indacene is an intriguing antiaromatic hydrocarbon of 12 π-electrons, it has been underrepresented due to the lack of efficient and versatile methods to prepare stable derivatives. Herein we report a concise and modular synthetic method for hexaaryl-s-indacene derivatives bearing electron-donating/-accepting groups at specific positions to furnish C₂-, D₂-, and C₂-symmetric substitution patterns. We also report the effects of substituents on their molecular structures, frontier molecular orbital (MO) levels, and magnetically induced ring current tropicities. Both theoretical calculations and X-ray structure analyses indicate that the derivatives of the C₂-substitution pattern adopt different C₂ structures with significant bond length alternation depending on the electronic property of the substituents. Due to the nonuniform distribution of the frontier MOs, their energy levels are selectively modulated by the electron-donating substituents. This leads to the inversion of the HOMO and HOMO-1 sequences with respect to those of the intrinsic s-indacene as theoretically predicted and experimentally proven by the absorption spectra at visible and near-infrared regions. The NICS values and the ¹H NMR chemical shifts of the s-indacene derivatives indicate their weak antiaromaticity. The different tropicities are explained by the modulation of the HOMO and HOMO-1 levels. In addition, for the hexaxylyl derivative, weak fluorescence from the S₂ excited state was detected due to the large energy gap between the S₁ and S₂ states. Notably, an organic field-effect transistor (OFET) fabricated using the hexaxylyl derivative exhibited moderate hole carrier mobility, a result which opens the door for optoelectronic applications of s-indacene derivatives.