Spinning Molecules, Spinning Spins: Modulation of an Electron Spin Exchange Interaction in a Highly Anisotropic Hyperfine Field

[Image: see text] An investigation of spin and conformational dynamics in a series of symmetric Cu–Cu porphyrin dimer solutions is presented using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. Previous spectral simulations focused on the isotropic exchange interaction (J(avg)) between the Cu centers. In this work, an additional line broadening parameter (J(mod)) is explored in detail via variable temperature X-band EPR in liquid solution for several different structures. The J(mod) phenomenon is due to fluctuations in the spin exchange interaction caused by conformational motion of the porphyrin planes. The J(mod) parameter scales with the inverse of the rotational barriers that determine the Boltzmann-weighted torsional angle distribution between neighboring porphyrin planes. Arrhenius plots allow for extraction of the activation energies for rotation, which are 5.77, 2.84, and 5.31 kJ/mol for ethyne-bridged (porphinato)copper(II)-(porphinato)copper(II), butadiyne-bridged (porphinato)copper(II)-(porphinato)copper(II), and ethyne-bridged (porphinato)copper(II)-(porphinato)zinc(II)-(porphinato)copper(II) complexes, respectively. DFT calculations of these torsional barriers match well with the experimental results. This is the first report of a J(mod) analysis within a highly anisotropic hyperfine field and demonstrates the utility of the theory for extraction of dynamic information.