Photoinduced intermolecular electron transfer reaction between N,N-dimethylaniline and anthracene in acetonitrile solution: A theoretical study

Abstract

The photoinduced intermolecular electron transfer (ET) reaction between N,N-dimethylaniline and excited state anthracene in acetonitrile solution is studied theoretically. A solvation coordinate s which represents stochastic one-dimensional dynamics of the solution phase reaction is defined and a Hamiltonian in terms of s and perpendicular bath modes is derived from the spin-boson Hamiltonian. This has an advantage that the dynamics of the transferring electron is influenced by the bath only through coupling with the coordinate s. Intra- and intermolecular potentials are constructed by using ab initio molecular orbital methods, and a series of molecular dynamics simulation analysis is performed. Mean force potentials as a function of the donor–acceptor distance R are computed and the bimolecular encounter dynamics is investigated. Diabatic free energy curves for the coordinate s are computed and shown to be well approximated by parabolas, indicating that the dielectric saturation effect is negligible. The dependence of the free energy relationships on R is examined. It is shown that the present system corresponds to the increasing region of the rate constant, in contrast with the conventional picture. The electronic coupling of the ET is evaluated by the method of corresponding orbitals. The R dependence of the ET rate is evaluated and the reaction adiabaticity and mechanism are discussed. Dynamical solvent effects are taken into consideration in terms of the generalized Langevin equation formalism.