What difference does a methyl group make: pentamethylbenzene?

Matthew Mudge; Boon K Ng; Catherine Jessica Onie; Mohan Bhadbhade; Richard A Mole; Kirrily C Rule; Anton P J Stampfl; John A Stride

doi:10.1002/cphc.201402538

What difference does a methyl group make: pentamethylbenzene?

Chemphyschem. 2014 Dec 1;15(17):3776-81. doi: 10.1002/cphc.201402538. Epub 2014 Sep 11.

Authors

Matthew Mudge¹, Boon K Ng, Catherine Jessica Onie, Mohan Bhadbhade, Richard A Mole, Kirrily C Rule, Anton P J Stampfl, John A Stride

Affiliation

¹ School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052 (Australia).

PMID: 25212729
DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201402538

Abstract

The crystal structure of pentamethylbenzene has been obtained for the first time with the use of synchrotron radiation, whilst the low-energy spectrum of lattice dynamics, dominated by the methyl group torsions, was obtained using inelastic neutron scattering. The effect of symmetry lowering by the removal of a single methyl group relative to hexamethylbenzene has been investigated, including the role that this plays in the charge-transfer characteristics of complexes formed with tetracyanoethylene.

Keywords: X-ray diffraction; aromatic hydrocarbons; charge transfer; molecular packing; neutron scattering.