Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.129, No.35, 10785-10794, 2007
Calculations of the effects of substituents on bond localization in annelated cyclopentadienyl radicals
UB3LYP/6-31G(d) calculations have been performed in order to predict the ground states, (2)A(2) or B-2(1), of cyclopentadienyl radicals that are mono- and bis-annelated with a wide variety of substituents. Unlike the case in the annelated cyclooctatetraenes, studied by Baldridge and Siegel, our calculations find that the sizes of the coefficients of the degenerate MOs at the annelated carbons are more important than the symmetries of the substituent's frontier orbitals in determining the mode of bond localization in the annelated cyclopentadienyl radicals.