CORANNULENE REDUCTION - SPECTROSCOPIC DETECTION OF ALL ANIONIC OXIDATION-STATES

The reduction of corannulene (1) has been followed by parallel detection of optical absorption, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies. The major findings are the existence of a diamagnetic dianion that can be observed in NMR and negligable counterion influences in the mono- and dianion. The diamagnetic state of the dianion is also supported by vanishing EPR intensity and semiempirical calculations and exhibits one indistinguishable proton NMR resonance at -5.6 ppm for potassium and lithium as counterions; respectively. The NMR signal is strongly temperature dependent and can only be obtained at low temperature (T < 230 K) where the line width decreases with temperature. Further reduction to the trianion and tetraanion succeeds with Li as the reducing metal, but not with K even at ambient temperatures. The EPR spectra of the trianion show a pronounced temperature dependence with at least two Li cations being strongly coupled.