Molecular fragment approach to the study of pyrrole oligomers and polypyrrole

A molecular fragment approach is used to compute ionization potentials, transition energies and electron affinities of pyrrole oligomers. The calculations of these quantities include correlation energy contributions evaluated by integrating a functional of the two-particle Hartree-Fock density matrix. Pyrrole oligomers with chains of up to 16 rings are explicitly treated and the calculated quantities extrapolated to the limit of an infinitely long chain, to predict polymer properties. The theoretical results compare favorably with data on gas-phase ionization potentials deduced from experimental oxidation potentials, and with optical absorption peaks recorded in solution or on solid films. The large discrepancy between electron affinities obtained from the eigenvalues of an independent-particle frozen-orbital calculation and those obtained from separate, correlated calculations on the neutral system and the negative ion in shown. Received: 24 March 1998 / Accepted: 2 September 1998 / Published online: 7 December 1998