Discrete and continuum modeling of solvent effects in a twisted intramolecular charge transfer system: The 4-N,N-dimethylaminobenzonitrile (DMABN) molecule

Abstract

The 4-N,N-dimethylaminobenzonitrile (DMABN) molecule is a prototypical system displaying twisted intramolecular (TICT) charge transfer effects. The ground and the first four electronic excited states (S1–S4) in gas phase and upon solvation were studied. Charge transfer values as function of the torsion angle between the donor group (dimethylamine) and the acceptor moiety (benzonitrile) were explicitly computed. Potential energy curves were also obtained. The algebraic diagrammatic construction method at the second-order [ADC(2)] ab initio wave function was employed. Three solvents of increased polarities (benzene, DMSO and water) were investigated using discrete (average solvent electrostatic configuration - ASEC) and continuum (conductor-like screening model - COSMO) models. The results for the S3 and S4 excited states and the S1–S4 charge transfer curves were not previously available in the literature. Electronic gas phase and solvent vertical spectra are in good agreement with previous theoretical and experimental results. In the twisted (90°) geometry the optical oscillator strengths have negligible values even for the S2 bright state. Potential energy curves show two distinct pairs of curves intersecting at decreasing angles or not crossing in the more polar solvents. Charge transfer and electric dipole values allowed the rationalization of these results. The former effects are mostly independent of the solvent model and polarity. Although COSMO and ASEC solvent models mostly lead to similar results, there is an important difference: some crossings of the excitation energy curves appear only in the ASEC solvation model, which has important implications to the photochemistry of DMABN.