Effect of Excited-state Substituent Constant on the UV Spectra of 1,4-disubstituted Benzenes

A correlation equation between the UV absorption wavenumbers of 1,4-disubstituted benzenes and the excited-state substituent constant was obtained. For 80 sorts of 1,4- disubstituted benzenes, the correlation coefficient was 0.9805, and the standard deviation was only 672.27 cm^-1. The results imply that the excited-state substituent constant can be used productively for research on UV energy of 1,4-disubstituted benzenes. The present method provides a new avenue to study the UV absorption spectra of aromatic systems with the excited-state substituent constant, and it is helpful to understand the effect of substituent electrostatic effects on the chemical and physical properties of conjugated compounds with multiple substituents in excited state.

Substituent Effects on Reduction Potentials of Meta-substituted and Para-substituted Benzylideneanilines

Effects of meta-substituent of 3,4＇/4,3＇/3,3＇-substituted benzylideneanilines （XBAYs） on the electrochemical reduction potentials （E（Red）） were investigated, in which 49 samples of target compounds were synthesized, and their reduction potentials were measured by cyclic voltammetry. The substituent effects on the E（Red） of target compounds were analyzed and an optimality equation with four parameters （Hammett constant a of X, Hammett constant a of Y, excited-state substituent constant σexCC of X, and the substituent specific cross-interaction effect △σexCC2 between X and Y） was obtained. The results show that the factors affecting the E（Red） of 3,4＇/4,31/3,3P-substituted XBAYs are different from those of 4,4＇-substituted XBAYs. For 3,4＇/4,3＇/3,3＇-substituted XBAYs, σ（X） and σ（Y） must be employed, and the contribution of △σexCC2 is important and not negligible. Compared with 4,4＇-substituted XBAYs, X group contributes less to 3,4＇/4,3＇/3,3＇-substituted XBAYs, while Y group contributes more to them. Additionally, it was observed that either para-substituted XBAYs or meta-substituted XBAYs, the substituent effects of X are larger than those of Y on the E（Red） of substituted XBAYs.

Recent progress in quantifying substituent effects

This paper summarizes significant progress in quantifying organic substituent effects in the last 20 years. The main content is as follows： （1） The principle of electronegativity equalization has gained wide acceptance, and has been used to calculate the intramolecular charge distribution and inductive effect of groups. A valence electrons equalization method was proposed to compute the molecular electronegativity on the basis of geometric mean method, harmonic mean method, and weighted mean method. This new calculation method further extended the application of the principle of electronegativity equalization. （2） A scale method was established for experimentally determining the electrophilic and nucleophilic ability of reagents, in which benzhydryliumions and quinone methides were taken as the reference compounds, and the research field was extended to the gas phase conditions, organometallic reaction and radicals system. Moreover, the nucleophilicity parameters N and electro- philicity parameters E for a series of reagents were obtained. The definition and quantitative expression of electrophilicity in- dex co and nucleophilicity index co were proposed theoretically, and the correlation between the parameters from experimental determination and the indexes from theoretical calculation was also investigated. （3） The polarizability effect parameter was initially calculated by empirical method and further developed by quantum chemistry method. Recently, the polarizability ef- fect index of alkyl （PEI） and groups （PEIx） were proposed by statistical method, and got wide applications in explaining and estimating gas-phase acidity and basicity, ionization energy, enthalpy of formation, bond energy, reaction rate, water solubility and chromatographic retention for organic compounds. （4） The excited-state substituent constant Crcc obtained directly from the UV absorption energy data of substituted benzenes, is different from the polar constants in molecular ground state and the radical spin-delocalization effects constants in molecular radical state. The proposed constant Crcc correlated well with the UV absorption energy of many kinds of organic compounds, such as 1,4-disubstituted benzenes, substituted stilbenes, and di- substituted N-benzylidenebenzenamine. （5） The establishment of the steric shielding effect distinguished the three traditional steric effects. The stereoselectivity index Ci was proposed to quantify the stereoselectivity of the addition reaction of carbonyl with nucleophilic reagent. The shielding parameter Rs was defined to quantitatively express the specific surface of the reac- tion center screened by a group. Further, the Topological Steric Effect Index （TSEI） of a group was proposed on the basis of the relative specific volume of reaction center screened by the atoms of substituents. These parameters can be applied in esti- mating the intramolecular dihedral angles, stereoselectivity of reaction, enthalpies of formation of alkenes and alkylbenzene, acidity of substitutedimidazolium ionic liquid, and the reaction rate of alkane and hydroxyl radical. In addition, some sugges- tions and prospects for further studies on quantifying the organic substituent effects were presented in this paper.