Broken-symmetry density functional theory investigation on bis-nitronyl nitroxide diradicals: Influence of length and aromaticity of couplers

A series of nitronyl nitroxide (NN) diradicals with linear conjugated couplers and another series with aromatic couplers have been investigated by the broken-symmetry (BS) DFT approach. The overlap integral between the magnetically active orbitals in the BS state has been explicitly computed and used for the evaluation of the magnetic exchange coupling constant (J). The calculated J values are in very good agreement with the observed values in the literature. The magnitude of J depends on the length of the coupler as well as the conformation of the radical units. The aromaticity of the spacer decreases the strength of the exchange coupling constant. The SOMO-SOMO energy splitting analysis, where SOMO stands for the singly occupied molecular orbital, and the calculation of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) parameters have also been carried out. The computed hyperfine coupling constants support the intramolecular magnetic interactions. The nature of magnetic exchange coupling constant can also be predicted from the shape of the SOMOs as well as the spin alternation rule in the unrestricted. Hartree-Fock (UHF) treatment. It is found that 7-conjugation along with the spin-polarization plays the major role in controlling the magnitude and sign of the coupling constant.