<i>N</i>-Carbazolyl π-Radical and Its Antiaromatic Nitrenium Ion: A Threshold Photoelectron Spectroscopic Study

Understanding the structure and properties of heterocyclic radicals and their cations is crucial for elucidating reaction mechanisms as they serve as versatile synthetic intermediates. In this work, the <i>N</i>-carbazolyl radical <b>1</b> was generated via pyrolysis and characterized using photoion mass-selected threshold photoelectron spectroscopy coupled with tunable vacuum-ultraviolet synchrotron radiation. The <i>N</i>-centered radical <b>1</b> is classified as a π-radical (²B₁), with the unpaired electron found to be delocalized over the central five-membered ring of the carbazole. Adiabatic ionization energies corresponding to the transition from radical <b>1</b> to its singlet <b>1</b>⁺(¹A₁) and triplet <b>1</b>⁺(³B₂) cations were determined to be 7.70 ± 0.03 and 8.14 ± 0.03 eV, respectively. The antiaromatic nitrenium ion <b>1</b>^<b>+</b> exhibits a singlet ground state with an experimental singlet-triplet energy gap (Δ<i>E</i>_S-T) of -0.44 eV (10.1 kcal/mol), in very good agreement with theory. <i>N</i>-centered radicals are found to have a higher ionization energy than their <i>C</i>-centered analogues due to stabilization of the singly occupied molecular orbital.