Theoretical calculations of the structure of a donor—acceptor stilbene, azobenzene and related molecules

The structures of a substituted stilbene, azobenzene, and two isomeric benzylidene anilines containing the 4-dimethyl-amino group at one end of the molecule and the 4′-nitro group at the other, have been calculated using the semiempirical MNDO, AM1, and PM3 methods and the ab initio HF/3-21G method. The results are compared with experimental data where available. The MNDO method gives a very poor account of the geometry of the stilbene, but both the AM1 and PM3 methods correctly predict the planarity of the substituted stilbene and nitrobenzylidene aniline but erroneously predict a non-planar structure for the azobenzene. In contrast, the ab initio method predicts planar structures for the substituted stilbene, azobenzene, and nitrobenzylidene aniline, and a twisted structure for the isomeric benzylidene nitroaniline, in line with crystallographic data. This loss of planarity for the benzylidene nitroaniline is almost certainly responsible for its smaller non-linear activity and for the hypsochromic shift observed in its low energy absorption band relative to the other molecules.