Crystal Fluidity Reflected by Fast Rotational Motion at the Core, Branches, and Peripheral Aromatic Groups of a Dendrimeric Molecular Rotor

Low packing densities are key structural features of amphidynamic crystals built with static and mobile components. Here we report a loosely packed crystal of dendrimeric rotor 2 and the fast dynamics of all its aromatic groups, both resulting from the hyperbranched structure of the molecule. Compound 2 was synthesized with a convergent strategy to construct a central phenylene core with stators consisting of two layers of triarylmethyl groups. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed a low-density packing structure consisting of one molecule of 2 and approximately eight solvent molecules per unit cell. Three isotopologues of 2 were synthesized to study the motion of each segment of the molecule in the solid state using variable temperature quadrupolar echo 2H NMR spectroscopy. Line shape analysis of the spectra reveals that the central phenylene, the six branch phenylenes, and the 18 periphery phenyls all display megahertz rotational dynamics in the crystals at ambient temperature. Arrhenius analysis of the data gives similar activation energies and pre-exponential factors for different parts of the structure. The observed pre-exponential factors are 4–6 orders of magnitude greater than those of elementary site-exchange processes, indicating that the dynamics are not dictated by static energetic potentials. Instead, the activation energies for rotations in the crystals of 2 are controlled by temperature dependent local structural fluctuations and crystal fluidity.