Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 17, 2026

Photogeneration of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes: Application in Photoinduced Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization
Published on: November 29, 2018
Büchner-type ring expansion of aromatic main-group biradicaloids toward phosphorus radical-derived NIR-II
Shihua Liu1,2, Shunlin Zheng1, Jieli Lin1
1LIFM, IGCME, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-Sen University Guangzhou 510006 China lizhsh6@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
The Büchner reaction enables the construction of functionalized cycloheptatrienes and aromatic tropylium cations, and has recently been extended to the ring expansion of arenes with low-valent main-group systems. Although stable 6π-aromatic biradicaloids typically exhibit characteristic biradical reactivity, we leverage the aromaticity of dicarbondiphosphides (1) to achieve an unprecedented Büchner-type ring expansion, yielding air-stable aromatic 1,3-diphospholium cations (3). Multimodal characterization (NMR, UV-vis, SC-XRD, computational studies) confirms the 6π-aromaticity of 3. Reduction of 3 yields stable 7π-electron neutral radicals (4), which contrast with conventional five-membered neutral radicals possessing 5π-electron systems. These radicals (4a: λ max = 1113.2 nm; 4b: λ max = 1330.7 nm) exhibit strong second near-infrared biowindow (NIR-II, 1000-1350 nm) absorptions, and shown promising application potential as the first phosphorus radical-derived organic NIR-II photothermal materials.
Related Concept Videos
ortho–para-Directing Activators: –CH3, –OH, –⁠NH2, –OCH3
π Electron Effects on Chemical Shift: Aromatic and Antiaromatic Compounds
Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Fluorination and Iodination of Benzene
Benzene to 1,4-Cyclohexadiene: Birch Reduction Mechanism
Radicals: Electronic Structure and Geometry
Accordingly, the structure of a trivalent radical lies between the geometries of carbocations and carbanions. An sp2-hybridized carbocation is trigonal planar, while an sp3-hybridized carbanion is trigonal pyramidal. Here, the difference in geometry is...
Radical Formation: Addition
Similar to charge conservation in chemical reactions, spin conservation is implicit for radical reactions. Accordingly, the product formed must possess an...
![[DPEPhosbcpCu]PF6: A General and Broadly Applicable Copper-Based Photoredox Catalyst](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudfront.jove.com%2FCDNSource%2Fteasers%2F59739.jpg&w=3840&q=50)
![Cercosporin-Photocatalyzed [4+1]- and [4+2]-Annulations of Azoalkenes Under Mild Conditions](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudfront.jove.com%2FCDNSource%2Fteasers%2F60786.jpg&w=3840&q=50)