Charge transfer excitations in cofacial fullerene-porphyrin complexes

Porphyrin and fullerene donor-acceptor complexes have been extensively studied for their photo-induced charge transfer characteristics. We present the electronic structure of ground states and a few charge transfer excited states of four cofacial porphyrin-fullerene molecular constructs studied using density functional theory at the all-electron level using large polarized basis sets. The donors are base and Zn-tetraphenyl porphyrins and the acceptor molecules are C(60) and C(70). The complexes reported here are non-bonded with a face-to-face distance between the porphyrin and the fullerene of 2.7 to 3.0 A?. The energies of the low lying excited states including charge transfer states calculated using our recent excited state method are in good agreement with available experimental values. We find that replacing C(60) by C(70) in a given dyad may increase the lowest charge transfer excitation energy by about 0.27 eV. Variation of donor in these complexes has marginal effect on the lowest charge transfer excitation energy. The interfacial dipole moments and lowest charge transfer states are studied as a function of face-to-face distance.     

A theoretical investigation of the photo-induced intramolecular charge transfer excitation of cuprous (I) bis-phenanthroline by density functional theory

This work reported an investigation on the excited state and electronic transfer excitation of cuprous (I) bis-phenanthrouline complex by density functional theory. The intramolecular charge transfer from central metal to ligand (MLCT) during the excitation was observed. The transfer direction and degree were discussed on the basis of analyzing the Mulliken charge. The structural distortion caused by the charge transfer in the excited state was confirmed. The excited state was found having the characters similar with Cu(II) complex both in electronic and geometrical properties. The large structural distortion found between ground state and excited state could lead to a decrease in the lifetime of excited state as well as a non-radiative decay. The excitation energies and oscillator strengths of cuprous (I) bis-phenanthrouline were derived using time-dependent density functional method. The values of excitation energies are good agreement with the results of the experimental measuring.     

Molecular and vibrational structure of tetroxo d0 metal complexes in their excited states. a study based on time-dependent density functional calculations and Franck-Condon theory

We have applied time dependent density functional theory to study excited state structures of the tetroxo d(0) transition metal complexes MnO(4)(-), TcO(4)(-), RuO(4), and OsO(4). The excited state geometry optimization was based on a newly implemented scheme [Seth et al. Theor. Chem. Acc. 2011, 129, 331]. The first excited state has a C(3v) geometry for all investigated complexes and is due to a "charge transfer" transition from the oxygen based HOMO to the metal based LUMO. The second excited state can uniformly be characterized by "charge transfer" from the oxygen HOMO-1 to the metal LUMO with a D(2d) geometry for TcO(4)(-), RuO(4), and OsO(4) and two C(2v) geometries for MnO(4)(-). It is finally found that the third excited state of MnO(4)(-) representing the HOMO to metal based LUMO+1 orbital transition has a D(2d) geometry. On the basis of the calculated excited state structures and vibrational modes, the Franck-Condon method was used to simulate the vibronic structure of the absorption spectra for the tetroxo d(0) transition metal complexes. The Franck-Condon scheme seems to reproduce the salient features of the experimental spectra as well as the simulated vibronic structure for MnO(4)(-) generated from an alternative scheme [Neugebauer J. J. Phys. Chem. A 2005, 109, 1168] that does not apply the Franck-Condon approximation.     

DFT and TDDFT study related to electron transfer in nonbonded porphine...C60 complexes

Spectroscopic properties of a ground state nonbonded porphine-buckminsterfullerene (H2P...C60) complex are studied in several different relative orientations of C60 with respect to the porphine plane by using the density functional (DFT) and time-dependent density functional (TDDFT) theories. The geometries and electronic structures of the ground states are optimized with the B3LYP and PBE functionals and a SVP basis set. Excitation energies and oscillator strengths are obtained from the TDDFT calculations. The relative orientation of C60 is found to affect the equilibrium distance between H2P and C60 especially in the case of the PBE functional. The excitation energies of different H2P...C60 complexes are found to be practically the same for the same excitations when the B3LYP functional is used but to differ notably when PBE is used in calculations. Existence of the states related to a photoinduced electron transfer within a porphyrin-fullerene dyad is also studied. All calculations predict a formation of an excited charge-transfer complex state, a locally excited donor (porphine) state, as well as a locally excited acceptor (fullerene) state in the investigated H2P...C60 complexes.     

Electronic structure and excited states of rhenium(I) amido and phosphido carbonyl-bipyridine complexes studied by picosecond time-resolved IR spectroscopy and DFT calculations

UV-vis absorption and picosecond time-resolved IR (TRIR) spectra of amido and phosphido complexes fac-[Re(ER2)(CO)3(bpy)] (ER2 = NHPh, NTol2, PPh2, bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, Tol = 4-methylphenyl) were investigated in conjunction with DFT and TD-DFT calculations in order to understand their ground-state electronic structure, low-lying electronic transitions and excited-state character and dynamics. The HOMO is localized at the amido/phosphido ligand. Amide and phosphide ligands are sigma-bonded to Re, the pi interaction being negligible. Absorption spectra show a weak band at low energies (1.7-2.1 eV) that arises from essentially pure ER(2) --> bpy ligand-to-ligand charge transfer (LLCT). The lowest excited state is the corresponding triplet, (3)LLCT. Low triplet energies and large distortions diminish the excited-state lifetimes to 85 and 270 ps for NHPh and NTol(2), respectively, and to ca. 30 ps for PPh2. nu(CO) vibrations undergo only very small ( bpy MLCT character, is a unique feature of the amido/phoshido complexes, whose lowest excited state can be viewed as containing a highly unusual aminyl/phosphinyl radical-cationic ligand. For comparison, the amino and phosphino complexes fac-[Re(NHPh(2))(CO)3(bpy)]+ and fac-[Re(PPh3)(CO)3(bpy)]+ are shown to have the usual Re --> bpy (3)MLCT lowest excited states, characterized by upshifted nu(CO) bands.     

Theoretical study on the spectroscopic properties and electronic structures of heteroleptic phosphorescent Ir(III) complexes

The geometries, spectroscopic and electronic structures properties of a series of heteroleptic phosphorescent Ir(III) complexes including N981, N982, N983, N984 have been characterized by density functional theory calculations. The excited‐state properties of the Ir(III) complexes have been characterized by CIS method. The ground‐ and excited‐state geometries were optimized at the B3LYP/LANL2DZ and CIS/LANL2DZ levels, respectively. By using the time‐dependent density functional theory method, the absorption and phosphorescence spectra were calculated based on the optimized ground‐ and excited‐state geometries, respectively. The results show that the absorption and emission data agree well with the corresponding experimental results. The calculated results also revealed that the nature of the substituent at the 4‐position of the pyridyl moiety can influence the distributions of HOMO and LUMO and their energies. In addition, the charge transport quality has been estimated approximately by the calculated reorganization energy (λ). Our result also indicates that the positions of the substitute groups not only change the transition characters but also affect the charge transfer rate and balance, and complex N982 is a very good charge transfer material for green OLEDs. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2009     

Ab initio description of photoabsorption and electron transfer in a doubly-linked porphyrin-fullerene dyad

Structure, photoabsorption and excited states of two representative conformations obtained from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of a doubly-linked porphyrin-fullerene dyad DHD6ee are studied by using both DFT and wavefunction based methods. Charge transfer from the donor (porphyrin) to the acceptor (fullerene) and the relaxation of the excited state are of special interest. The results obtained with LDA, GGA, and hybrid functionals (SVWN, PBE, and B3LYP, respectively) are analyzed with emphasis on the performance of used functionals as well as from the point of view of their comparison with wavefunction based methods (CCS, CIS(D), and CC2). Characteristics of the MD structures are retained in DFT optimization. The relative orientation of porphyrin and fullerene is significantly influencing the MO energies, the charge transfer (CT) in the ground state of the dyad and the excitation of ground state CT complex (g-CTC). At the same time, the excitation to the locally excited state of porphyrin is only little influenced by the orientation or cc distance. TD-DFT underestimates the excitation energy of the CT state, however for some cases (with relatively short donor-acceptor separations), the use of a hybrid functional like B3LYP alleviates the problem. Wavefunction based methods and CC2 in particular appear to overestimate the CT excitation energies but the inclusion of proper solvation models can significantly improve the results.     

Intermediate state representation approach to physical properties of electronically excited molecules

Propagator methods provide a direct approach to energies and transition moments for (generalized) electronic excitations from the ground state, but they do not usually allow one to determine excited state wave functions and properties. Using a specific intermediate state representation (ISR) concept, we here show how this restriction can be overcome in the case of the algebraic-diagrammatic construction (ADC) propagator approach. In the ISR reformulation of the theory the basic ADC secular matrix is written as a representation of the Hamiltonian (or the shifted Hamiltonian) in terms of explicitly constructable states, referred to as intermediate (or ADC) states. Similar intermediate state representations can be derived for operators other than the Hamiltonian. Together with the ADC eigenvectors, the intermediate states give rise to an explicit formulation of the excited wave functions and allow one to calculate physical properties of excited states as well as transition moments for transitions between different excited states. As for the ground-state excitation energies and transition moments, the ADC excited state properties are size consistent so that the theory is suitable for applications to large systems. The established hierarchy of higher-order [ADC(n)] approximations, corresponding to systematic truncations of the IS configuration space and the perturbation-theoretical expansions of the ISR matrix elements, can readily be extended to the excited state properties. Explicit ISR matrix elements for arbitrary one-particle operators have been derived and coded at the second-order [ADC(2)] level of theory. As a first computational test of the method we have carried out ADC(2) calculations for singlet and triplet excited state dipole moments in H(2)O and HF, where comparison to full CI results can be made. The potential of the ADC(2) method is further demonstrated in an exploratory study of the excitation energies and dipole moments of the low-lying excited states of paranitroaniline. We find that four triplet states, T1-T4, and two singlet states, S1 and S2, lie (vertically) below the prominent charge transfer (CT) excitation, S3. The dipole moment of the S3 state (17.0D) is distinctly larger than that of the corresponding T3 triplet state (11.7D).     

Nonequilibrium charge recombination from the excited adiabatic state of donor-acceptor complexes

A model of nonequilibrium charge recombination from an excited adiabatic state of a donor-acceptor complex induced by the nonadiabatic interaction operator is considered. The decay of the excited state population prepared by a short laser pulse is shown to be highly nonexponential. The influence of the excitation pulse carrier frequency on the ultrafast charge recombination dynamics of excited donor-acceptor complexes is explored. The charge recombination rate constant is found to decrease with increasing excitation frequency. The variation of the excitation pulse carrier frequency within the charge transfer absorption band of the complex can alter the effective charge recombination rate by up to a factor 2. The magnitude of this spectral effect decreases strongly with increasing electronic coupling.     

Theoretical investigation on quinoline-based platinum (II) complexes as efficient singlet oxygen photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy

Geometry optimizations of the quinoline-based platinum (II) complexes (1-R, 2-R) and their related calculations on excited state energies, electronic absorption spectra and orbital populations have been carried out by the hybrid density functional theory (DFT) and its time-dependent approach (TD-DFT). The solvent effects on excitation energies are taken into account using the conductor-like polarizable continuum model (C-PCM). The red-shifted level of absorption bands, energy gaps between the singlet ground state (S₁) and the first triplet excited state (T₁) for each examined complex have been elaborated thoroughly as well. We find that the quinoline-8-thoil (ligand 2) induces much more significant red-shifted level than 8-hydroxyquinoline (ligand 1), and singlet-triplet splitting energy gaps of all examined complexes are bigger than threshold energy to yield singlet oxygen. It is revealed that the electronic red-shifted absorption bands originate from metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) transitions, and also shown that the quinoline-based Pt (II) complexes with strong donor groups could be considered as potential candidates for unearthing of novel photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy (PDT).     

Theoretical study on the influence of ancillary ligand on the spectroscopic properties and electronic structures of phosphorescent Pt(II) complexes

The geometries, energies, and electronic properties of a series of phosphorescent Pt(II) complexes including FPt, CFPt, COFPt, and NFPt have been characterized within density functional theory DFT calculations which can reproduce and rationalize experimental results. The properties of excited‐states of the Pt(II) complexes were characterized by configuration interaction with singles (CIS) method. The ground‐ and excited‐state geometries were optimized at the B3LYP/LANL2DZ and CIS/LANL2DZ levels, respectively. In addition, we also have performed a triplet UB3LYP optimization for complex FPt and compared it with CIS method in the emission properties. The datum (562.52 nm) of emission wavelength for complex FPt, which were computed based on the triplet UB3LYP optimization excited‐state geometry, is not agreement with the experiment value (500 nm). The absorption and phosphorescence wavelengths were computed based on the optimized ground‐ and excited‐state geometries, respectively, by the time‐dependent density functional theory (TD‐DFT) methods. The results revealed that the nature of the substituent at the phenylpyridine ligand can influence the distributions of HOMO and LUMO and their energies. Moreover, the auxiliary ligand pyridyltetrazole can make the molecular structure present a solid geometry. In addition, the charge transport quality has been estimated approximately by the predicted reorganization energy (λ). Our result also indicates that the substitute groups and different auxiliary ligand not only change the nature of transition but also affect the rate and balance of charge transfer. By summarizing the results, we can conclude that the NFPt is good OLED materials with a solid geometry and a balanced charge transfer rate. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010     

Emission switching of 4,6-diphenylpyrimidones: solvent and solid state effects

The photophysics of 1-ethyl-4,6-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)-2(1H)-pyrimidone (1) and 1-ethyl-4,6-bis(4-(dimethylamino)phenyl)-2(1H)-pyrimidone (2) were investigated to determine the mechanisms of emission switching in response to protonation. UV-vis and steady state emission spectroscopy of the protonated and unprotonated forms across a range of solvents reveal the polarity dependence of the vertical excitation energies. Emission lifetimes and quantum yields show the solvent dependency of the excited states. Emission enhancements were observed in polyethylene glycol solutions and in the solid state (both thin film and single crystal), demonstrating the role of intramolecular rotation in thermal relaxation of the excited states. TD-DFT calculations provide insights into the excited state geometries and the role of intramolecular charge transfer. The collected data show that emission of diphenylpyrimidones can be modulated by four factors, including the identity of the electron-donating auxochrome, protonation state, solvent polarity, and viscosity.     

Ab initio study of hydrogen bonding interaction and photoinduced electron transfer between 4‐nitroquinoline‐1‐oxide and tryptophan

In the present article, the electronic structure of 4‐nitroquinoline‐1‐oxide (4NQO) has been theoretically investigated at the level of HFSCF/6‐31G**. Conformation of monomeric 4NQO has been found to be the most stable when the nitro group twists from the quinoline plane by about 24°. The absorption spectra of the twisted 4NQO have been calculated by using complete active space self‐consistent field method. The hydrogen bonded complexes of 4NQO and tryptophan have been intensively studied. The absorption spectra of the most stable complex have been calculated to investigate the photoinduced electron transfer between 4NQO and tryptophan. The first and second excited singlet states are found to be charge‐separated. Population analysis shows that the low‐lying triplet states are charge‐separated as well, except for the lowest one that presents the characters of a locally excited state. A solvent effect on transition energies has been considered based on the Ooshika–Lippert–Martaga equation. Theoretical study shows that the optical excitation can lead to charge separation in the 4NQO–tryptophan complex. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2004     

Local pair natural orbitals for excited states

We explore how in response calculations for excitation energies with wavefunction based (e.g., coupled cluster) methods the number of double excitation amplitudes can be reduced by means of truncated pair natural orbital (PNO) expansions and localized occupied orbitals. Using the CIS(D) approximation as a test model, we find that the number of double excitation amplitudes can be reduced dramatically with minor impact on the accuracy if the excited state wavefunction is expanded in state-specific PNOs generated from an approximate first-order guess wavefunction. As for ground states, the PNO truncation error can also for excitation energies be controlled by a single threshold related to generalized natural occupation numbers. The best performance is found with occupied orbitals which are localized by the Pipek-Mezey localization. For a large test set of excited states we find with this localization that already a PNO threshold of 10(-8)-10(-7), corresponding to an average of only 40-80 PNOs per pair, is sufficient to keep the PNO truncation error for vertical excitation energies below 0.01 eV. This is a significantly more rapid convergence with the number doubles amplitudes than in domain-based local response approaches. We demonstrate that the number of significant excited state PNOs scales asymptotically linearly with the system size in the worst case of completely delocalized excitations and sub-linearly whenever the chromophore does not increase with the system size. Moreover, we observe that the flexibility of state-specific PNOs to adapt to the character of an excitation allows for an almost unbiased treatment of local, delocalized and charge transfer excited states.     

Bonding in the ground state and excited states of copper-alkene complexes

The ground state and ¹B₂ excited state of Cu(C₂H₄)⁺ and of CuX(C₂H₄) (X  F, Cl) have been investigated by the Hartree-Fock-Slater (HFS) method. The main metal-ligand interactions in the ground state are ethene π → Cu 4s donation and Cu 3d_π → ethene π^* backdonation, which have comparable contributions to the metal-ligand bond strength. The excitation of CuX(C₂H₄) does not involve an alkene π → metal charge transfer (LMCT), but instead is metal 3d → alkene π^* charge transfer (MLCT) in character. The implications for the photochemistry of olefin-copper(I) complexes are discussed.     

Expanded bite angles in tridentate ligands. Improving the photophysical properties in bistridentate RuII polypyridine complexes

Bistridentate metal complexes as photosensitizers are ideal building blocks in the construction of rod-like isomer-free assemblies for intramolecular photoinduced charge separation. Approaches to obtain long-lived luminescent metal-to-ligand charge transfer excited states in bistridentate Ru^II polypyridine complexes via the manipulation of metal-centered state energies are discussed. Following an introduction to general strategies to prolong the excited state lifetimes, more recent work is explored in detail where tridentate ligands with expanded 2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine cores are utilized. The synthesis of these tridentate ligands and their corresponding Ru^II complexes is covered. Bistridentate Ru^II complexes with microsecond metal-to-ligand charge transfer excited state lifetimes are described, and are used in electron donor–photosensitizer–electron acceptor assemblies for efficient vectorial photoinduced charge separation.     

Interface configuration effects on excitation,exciton dissociation,and charge recombination in organic photovoltaic heterojunction

The morphology of donor-acceptor heterojunction interface significantly affects the electron/hole processes in organic solar cells, including charge transfer (CT), exciton dissociation (ED), and charge recombination (CR). Here, to investigate interface molecular configuration effects, the donor-acceptor complexes with face-on, edge-on, and end-on configurations were constructed as model systems for the p-SIDT(FBTTh₂)₂/C₆₀ heterojunction. The geometries, electronic structures, and excitation properties of monomers and the complexes with three configurations were studied based on density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT calculations with optimally tuned range separation parameters and solid polarization effects. In terms of Marcus theory, the rate constants of ED and CR processes were analyzed. The results show that most of the excited states for p-SIDT(FBTTh₂)₂ exhibit an intramolecular CT character, and the similarity of the excitation characters (CT and local excitation) and energies among three complexes with different configurations indicate that the electronic structure and excitation properties are insensitive to the interfacial molecular configurations. However, the rates of ED and CR processes heavily depend on it. These results underline the importance of controlling molecular configuration and then the morphology at the heterojunction interface in organic solar cells.     

Molecular structures and excited states of CpM(CO)(2) (Cp = eta(5)-C(5)H(5); M = Rh, Ir) and [Cl(2)Rh(CO)(2)](-). Theoretical evidence for a competitive charge transfer mechanism

Molecular structures and excited states of CpM(CO)(2) (Cp = eta(5)-C(5)H(5); M = Rh, Ir) and [Cl(2)Rh(CO)(2)](-) complexes have been investigated using the B3LYP and the symmetry-adapted cluster (SAC)/SAC-configuration interaction (SAC-CI) theoretical methods. All the dicarbonyl complexes have singlet ground electronic states with large singlet-triplet separations. Thermal dissociations of CO from the parent dicarbonyls are energetically unfavorable. CO thermal dissociation is an activation process for [Cl(2)Rh(CO)(2)](-) while it is a repulsive potential for CpM(CO)(2). The natures of the main excited states of CpM(CO)(2) and [Cl(2)Rh(CO)(2)](-) are found to be quite different. For [Cl(2)Rh(CO)(2)](-), all the strong transitions are identified to be metal to ligand CO charge transfer (MLCT) excitations. A significant feature of the excited states of CpM(CO)(2) is that both MLCT excitation and a ligand Cp to metal and CO charge transfer excitation are strongly mixed in the higher energy states with the latter having the largest oscillator strength. A competitive charge transfer excited state has therefore been identified theoretically for CpRh(CO)(2) and CpIr(CO)(2). The wavelength dependence of the quantum efficiencies for the photoreactions of CpM(CO)(2) reported by Lees et al. can be explained by the existence of two different types of excited states. The origin of the low quantum efficiencies for the C-H/S-H bond activations of CpM(CO)(2) can be attributed to the smaller proportion of the MLCT excitation in the higher energy states.     

Synthesis and photophysical properties of fullerene-phthalocyanine-porphyrin triads and pentads

The synthesis and photophysical properties of several fullerene-phthalocyanine-porphyrin triads (1-3) and pentads (4-6) are described. The three photoactive moieties were covalently connected in an one-step synthesis through 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to C(60) of the corresponding azomethine ylides generated in situ by condensation reaction of a substituted N-porphyrinylmethylglycine derivative and an appropriated formyl phthalocyanine or a diformyl phthalocyanine derivative, respectively. ZnP-C(60)-ZnPc (3), (ZnP)(2)-ZnPc-(C(60))(2) (6), and (H(2)P)(2)-ZnPc-(C(60))(2) (5) give rise upon excitation of their ZnP or H(2)P components to a sequence of energy and charge-transfer reactions with, however, fundamentally different outcomes. With (ZnP)(2)-ZnPc-(C(60))(2) (6) the major pathway is an highly exothermic charge transfer to afford (ZnP)(ZnP(.+))-ZnPc-(C(60)(.-))(C(60)). The lower singlet excited state energy of H(2)P (i.e., ca. 0.2 eV) and likewise its more anodic oxidation (i.e., ca. 0.2 V) renders the direct charge transfer in (H(2)P)(2)-ZnPc-(C(60))(2) (5) not competitive. Instead, a transduction of singlet excited state energy prevails to form the ZnPc singlet excited state. This triggers then an intramolecular charge transfer reaction to form exclusively (H(2)P)(2)-ZnPc(.+)-(C(60)(.-))(C(60)). A similar sequence is found for ZnP-C(60)-ZnPc (3).     

Theoretical investigation of electron transfer transition in tetracyanoethylene-contained organic complexes

In this work, the authors use complete active space self-consistent field method to investigate the photoinduced charge-separated states and the electron transfer transition in complexes ethylene-tetracyanoethylene and tetramethylethylene-tetracyanoethylene. Geometries of isolated tetracyanoethylene, ethylene, and tetramethylethylene have been optimized. The ground state and the low-lying excited states of ethylene and tetracyanoethylene have been optimized. The state energies in the gas phase have been obtained and compared with the experimentally observed values. The torsion barrier of tetracyanoethylene has been investigated through the state energy calculation at different conformations. Attention has been particularly paid to the charge-separated states and the electron transfer transition of complexes. The stacked conformations of the donor-acceptor complexes have been chosen for the optimization of the ground and low-lying excited states. Equilibrium solvation has been considered by means of conductor-like screening model both in water and in dichloromethane. It has been found that the donor and tetracyanoethylene remain neutral in complexes in ground state (1)A(1) and in lowest triplet state (3)B(1), but charge separation appears in excited singlet state (1)B(1). Through the correction of nonequilibrium solvation energy based on the spherical cavity approximation, pi-->pi* electron transfer transition energies have been obtained. Compared with the experimental measurements in dichloromethane, the theoretical results in the same solvent are found higher by about 0.5 eV.