Theoretical investigation on the excited state intramolecular proton transfer in Me2N substituted flavonoid by the time-dependent density functional theory method**Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2013CB922204), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11574115 and 11704146), and the Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province, China (Grant No. 20150101063JC).

Abstract

Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) method is used to investigate the details of the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) process and the mechanism for temperature effect on the Enol*/Keto* emission ratio for the Me2N-substited flavonoid (MNF) compound. The geometric structures of the S0 and S1 states are denoted as the Enol, Enol*, and Keto*. In addition, the absorption and fluorescence peaks are also calculated. It is noted that the calculated large Stokes shift is in good agreement with the experimental result. Furthermore, our results confirm that the ESIPT process happens upon photoexcitation, which is distinctly monitored by the formation and disappearance of the characteristic peaks of infrared (IR) spectra involved in the proton transfer and in the potential energy curves. Besides, the calculations of highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) reveal that the electronegativity change of proton acceptor due to the intramolecular charge redistribution in the S1 state induces the ESIPT. Moreover, the thermodynamic calculation for the MNF shows that the Enol*/Keto* emission ratio decreasing with temperature increasing arises from the barrier lowering of ESIPT.