A series of planar hetero[8]circulenes and their doubly charged ions are studied by the NICS and GIMIC methods to interpret the aromatic properties of these high symmetry species. In accordance with the performed calculations all studied hetero[8]circulenes are found to be nonaromatic compounds because paratropic and diatropic ring-currents are completely canceled yielding almost zero net current. In great contrast, the dicationic and dianionic hetero[8]circulenes demonstrate the predominant contribution of diatropic ring currents resulting in the total aromatic character of the studied doubly charged ions. This fact allows us to predict the high stability of dianionic hetero[8]circulenes and explains the extremely high stability of dicationic species observed in the mass-spectra.

Single-wall nanotube based on tetraoxa[8]circulene monomer.

In the present work, we studied the synergetic effect of benzoannelation and NH/O-substitution for enhancing the absorption intensity in a series of novel designed benzoannelated aza- and oxa[8]circulenes. Semi-empirical estimations of the fluorescence rate constants allowed us to determine the most promising fluorophores among all the possible benzoannelated aza-, oxa- and mixed azaoza[8]circulenes. Among them, para-dibenzoannelated [8]circulenes demonstrated the most intense light absorption and emission due to the prevailing role of the linear acene chromophore. Calculated φ values are in complete agreement with experimental data for a number of already synthesized circulenes. Thus, we believe that the most promising circulenes designed in this study can demonstrate an intensive fluorescence in the case of their successful synthesis, which in turn could be extremely useful for the fabrication of future blue OLEDs. Special attention is devoted to the aromaticity features and peculiarities of the absorption spectra for the two highly-symmetrical (D ground state symmetry) π-isoelectronic species as well as the so-called tetrabenzotetraaza[8]circulene and tetrabenzotetraoxa[8]circulene molecules. Both of them are characterized by rich electronic spectra, which can be assigned only by taking into account the vibronic coarse structure of the first electronic absorption band; the 0-1 and 0-2 transitions were found to be active in the absorption spectrum in complete agreement with experimental data obtained for both energy and intensity. The corresponding promotive vibrational modes have been determined and their vibronic activity estimated using the Franck-Condon approximation.