Tunneling and sterically induced ring puckering in a substituted [8]annulene anion radical.

Abstract

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies have revealed that the steric interaction between the methyl hydrogens on a tert-butoxy substituent and the cyclooctatetraene (COT) ring system sterically induces a puckering of the eight-membered ring in the anion radical of tert-butoxy-COT. The induced nonplanarity of the COT ring system causes a large attenuation of the EPR coupling constants. Since the C-D bond length is slightly shorter than is the C-H bond length, replacement of the tert-butyl group with a tert-butyl-d(9) group results in less steric interaction and measurably larger electron proton coupling constants. The oscillation between the two close to planar alternating bond length (ABL) D(2d) conformers of the COT moiety was found to be extremely rapid (k > 10(12) s(-1)) and quantum mechanical tunneling is proposed to be involved.