Electronic absorption spectra of charge-transfer complexes and effects of substituents in radical cations

The effects of X substituents on the energies of charge-transfer bandshv _CT in electronic absorption spectra of charge-transfer complexes of π-, n-, or σ-donors (DX) with π- or σ-acceptors (A) as well as on the ionization potentialsI _D of individual DX molecules are described by the equationhv _CT(l _D)=a +bσ₁ +cσ _R ⁺ +dσ_α. When DX and A are fixed, the inductive (bσ₁), resonance (cσ _R ⁺ ), and polarization (dσ_α) contributions tohv _CT andI _D are virtually identical. The electronic structure of the D^.+X donor component of the compact [A^.−, D^.+X] radical-ionic pair in a solution is similar to that of the radical cation generated upon photoionization of the individual DX molecule in the gaseous phase. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 6, pp. 1002–1006, June, 2000.