Electronic and photophysical properties of selected organic boron-containing molecules: Insight into effects of heteroatom substitution and aggregation

The density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT methods were used to investigate the electronic and optoelectronic properties of several main group atom-doped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, such as oxygen-substituted PHO1 and PHO2, and sulfur-substituted PHS1 and PHS2. The ground-state structures of these molecules generally have an open-shell singlet configuration with a certain diradical character. In comparison with PHO1 and PHO2, PHS1 and PHS2 own larger diradical character indices due to their increased anti-aromaticity. Although the substitution of sulfur for the peripheral oxygen has a significant effect on the molecular geometry, the adiabatic excitation energy levels of the corresponding low-lying excited states of these molecules are less changed. Calculations reveal that here the intersystem crossing (ISC) and reverse intersystem crossing processes in CH₂Cl₂ mainly occur between the S₁ and T₂ states, and the cis molecules PHO2 and PHS2 have better charge transportation performance. Furthermore, the electronic and photophysical properties of these B-containing molecules are predicted to be tuned by the peripheral atom substitution and the structural and aggregation changes.