Journal article

Publication year: 2015

Pages: 13436-13439

Journal: Angewandte Chemie International Edition

Volume number: 54

Issue number: 45

ISSN: 1433-7851

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201506126

Publisher: Wiley

Abstract: 
Large substituents are commonly seen as entirely repulsive through steric hindrance. Such groups have additional attractive effects arising from weak London dispersion forces between the neutral atoms. Steric interactions are recognized to have a strong influence on isomerization processes, such as in azobenzene-based molecular switches. Textbooks indicate that steric hindrance destabilizes the Zisomers. Herein, we demonstrate that increasing the bulkiness of electronically equal substituents in the meta-position decreases the thermal reaction rates from the Z to the E isomers. DFT computations revealed that attractive dispersion forces essentially lower the energy of the Z isomers.

Harvard Citation style: Schweighauser, L., Strauss, M., Bellotto, S. and Wegner, H. (2015) Attraction or Repulsion? London Dispersion Forces Control Azobenzene Switches, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 54(45), pp. 13436-13439. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201506126

APA Citation style: Schweighauser, L., Strauss, M., Bellotto, S., & Wegner, H. (2015). Attraction or Repulsion? London Dispersion Forces Control Azobenzene Switches. Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 54(45), 13436-13439. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201506126