| Abstract
| - The chemical synthesis, isolation, and characterization of phenyl viologen (PV) as a dication, radicalcation, and neutral species are described. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction of PV2+2Cl-·2H2O andPV•+PF6-·pyridine reveals the expected differences in bond lengths and also a structural changefrom two coplanar central rings in PV•+ to a twist of 36° between the two central rings in PV2+.The phenyl viologen radical cation exhibits behavior characteristic of many radical cations, includingweak π-dimerization in the solid state and reversible π-dimerization in solution. Electricalconductivity measurements of neutral phenyl viologen, the first such measurements of a neutralviologen, reveal that it is a significantly better conductor than the radical cation. Differences ingeometric relaxation during charge transfer offer a possible explanation for the higher conductivityof the neutral viologen.
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