ABSTRACT
The acid dissociation constant of three benzimidazoles, namely 2,2'-bibenzo[d]imidazole, 2,5'-bibenzo[d]imidazole, and 5,5'-bibenzo[d]imidazole, have been investigated by means of density functional theory calculations in gas phase and in aqueous solution. The theoretical approach was validated by the comparing of predicted and experimentally determined pKa values in imidazole, benzimidazole, and 2-phenylbenzimidazole. From the studied compounds, 2,2'-bibenzo[d]imidazole was found to be the most acidic, which made it a valuable candidate as a material for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells.
ABSTRACT
Polybenzimidazole doped with phosphoric acid (PA) is a candidate for polymer electrolyte membranes in fuel cells. Understanding the interaction of benzimidazole in polybenzimidazole with PA is important for fuel-cell applications. Herein, the interaction of a PA-benzimidazole complex was investigated using density functional theory, with calculations performed at the ωB97X-D/6-311G(d,p) level of theory, with an aim to investigate the effects of bibenzimidazole configuration on the interaction energy. Benzimidazole and three different bibenzimidazole configurations (2,2'-bibenzo[d]imidazole (1), 2,5'-bibenzo[d]imidazole (2), and 5,5'-bibenzo[d]imidazole (3)) were used as models for bulk polybenzimidazole. Calculation of various types of hydrogen bond interaction showed that the interaction between the imino moiety of the monomer and the hydroxyl group of PA is the strongest, which agrees with previous studies. Our calculations indicated that π-H interactions between the hydrogen atoms of the PA molecule and the benzene rings should be considered, and these contribute to the interaction energy for some interaction complexes. The interaction energy between the monomer and PA is smaller than that of the PA dimer. However, the interaction energy between bibenzimidazole and PA is comparable to that of the PA dimer for bibenzimidazole configurations 1 and 2, highlighting the importance of considering the adjacent monomer unit.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we present a structural investigation of 1,3-phenylene bis[4-((4-10-decyloxyphenyl)iminomethyl)-benzoate], known as a banana-liquid crystal, in the B4 phase, which was performed by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methodology combined with quantum chemical calculations. The present solid-state NMR measurements including (13)C CPMAS, 2D TOSS-deTOSS, dipole-dephase, 1D and 2D EXSY, and MAS-j-HMQC provided accurate spectral assignments and unambiguous NMR parameters such as (13)C chemical shift tensors, which were used for construction of the three-dimensional structure with the aid of density functional theory calculations. In the obtained molecular structure, two arms of the bent-core molecule are asymmetrically expanded such that the direction of the dipole moment is off alignment with respect to the middle line of the center benzene ring. It is this antisymmetric structure that is the origin of the twisted helical system in the B4 phase.
