Unique intramolecular electronic communications in mono-ferrocenylpyrimidine derivatives: Correlation between redox properties and structural nature

The correlation between redox properties and structural nature in a complete set of mono-ferrocenylpyrimidine derivatives (2-ferrocenylpyrimidine, 2-FcPy; 4-ferrocenylpyrimidine, 4-FcPy; 5-ferrocenylpyrimidine, 5-FcPy) was evaluated by investigating the intramolecular electronic communications. Both conventional electrochemical measurements in organic solvents and thin-film voltammetric studies of these compounds were carried out. It was discovered that their formal potentials are significantly different from each other, and shift negatively in the order of 4-FcPy > 5-FcPy > 2-FcPy. This result suggests that the intramolecular electronic communication is dictated by the delocalization effect of the π-bonding systems in 2-FcPy, and that the electron-withdrawing effect of the nitrogen atoms in the pyrimidine ring plays the key role in 4-FcPy and 5-FcPy. The single crystal X-ray structure analyis and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation provided additional evidence (e.g.; different torsion angles between the cyclopentadienyl and pyrimidine rings) to support the observed correlation between the redox properties and structural nature.