Mixed-Donor Charge-Transfer Complexes: A New Type of Nonstocihimoetric Compound

Crystalline complexes between aromatic hydrocarbon donors and trinitrobenzene which contain more than one species of donor molecule have been prepared. The system anthracene/phenanthrene-TNB in described in detail. The distiniction between solid solutions and compounds as applied to charge-transfer complexes in discussed in terms of structural and energetic data; it is argued that mixed-donor complexes can be regarded as solid solutions when unexcited, and as non-stoichiometric compounds when excited to a polar charge-transfer state.