Initiation of the internal-conversion process in the phenyl benzoate molecule

The INDO and CNDO/S methods were used to calculate changes in the energy of the ground state and the energy of the first singlet-singlet transition of phenyl benzoate permitted with respect to its multiplet nature with consistent rotation of phenyl groups of the molecule in the cis conformation. It was found that in the lowest excited singlet state of the phenyl benzoate molecule an adiabatic photoreaction can occur, as a result of which the energy of the S₀-S₁ electron transition decreases to values of 2 eV. With motion of the molecular system along the coordinate of the photoreaction, an internal-conversion process is initiated, which leads to the experimentally observed absence of luminescence of phenyl benzoate solutions.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Eksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 365–367, May–June, 1985.