Theoretical study of excited state proton transfer in 3,6-bis(benzoxazolyl)pyrocatechol (BBPC)

Abstract

Ab initio density functional theory and approximate instanton methods are used to study proton transfer processes in the first excited electronic state of 3,6-bis(benzoxazolyl)pyrocatechol (BBPC). Geometries of di-enol, keto-enol, and di-ketone tautomers as well as transition states for single and double proton transfer processes and the corresponding force fields are obtained with the CIS/6-31G* method and verified with CISD/6-31G* single point calculations. It is shown that keto-enol tautomer is the most stable in the S1 state while the least stable is di-ketone. The single proton transfer in the 2A1 state of di-enol leads to a somewhat more stable keto-enol tautomer. This result nicely reproduces the experimental assignment stating that BBPC, a symmetric molecule with two equivalent proton transfer reaction sites, undergoes a single proton transfer in the S1 state. The excited system has to overcome the barrier of about 9 kcal/mol and proton transfer is therefore dominated by tunneling. Dynamics calculations with the instanton method yield the rate of transfer of 9.8×1010 s−1, again in a very good agreement with the experimental value of kPT=(5.1±0.4)×1010 s−1 [Chem. Phys. Lett. 169, 450 (1990)]. Theory predicts a large kinetic isotope effect on this process. It is also shown that the reverse proton transfer leading back to di-enol has the rate strongly dependent on the stabilization energy of keto-enol. It effectively competes with the radiative decay of the latter, resulting in the observed weak di-enol fluorescence of BBPC. Finally, the calculations demonstrate why BBPC is not a photochrome unlike many typical Schiff bases.