A theoretical study on water-assisted excited state double proton transfer process in substituted 2,7-diazaindole-H2O complex

Solvent assisted excited-state deactivation pathways in isolated 2,7-diazaindole-S1-3 (S = Water and Ammonia) complexes

The role of solvent molecules in the deactivation of photo-excited 2,7-diazaindole (DAI) - (H₂O)_1-3 and DAI - (NH₃)_1-3 complexes were computationally investigated. An excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) path from the solvent to the DAI molecule was followed using the TD-DFT-D4 (B3LYP) level of theory. The computed potential energy profile of ESPT process has shown intersection between ππ* and nπ* states facilitated via relative stabilization of the nπ* state with decreasing N(7)-H_b bond length. The ESPT process, starting from the DAI-S_n (ππ*) state, crosses through a barrier ranging from 27 to 36 kJmol^-1 for water complexes and 26-30 kJmol^-1 for ammonia complexes. The energy of the excited state was rapidly decreased with a shorter N(7)-H_b bond length. Subsequently, a significant trend of finding a second intersection between the ground and the excited state was observed for all the complexes. The results firmly suggested a significant deactivation channel of excited azaindole derivatives. In the present system, two competing channels, ESPT and ESHT, were found to be energetically accessible. The energy barriers associated with the ESPT barriers for DAI-(H₂O)_1-3 complexes are similar to the ESHT barrier, depicting equal dominance of both processes. The increased basicity of the N(7) atom in the excited state resulted a facile ESPT process from the water to N(7) of the DAI molecule. However, DAI-(NH₃)_1-3 complexes show clear preference for ESHT over ESPT process owing to its higher gas-phase pK_a value making it a poor proton donor. The above systems can be used as a model to computationally and experimentally investigate the competing radiative and deactivation pathways of photo-excited solvated complexes of N-H-bearing bio-relevant molecules via proton and hydrogen transfer reactions.

Excited state hydrogen atom transfer pathways in 2,7-diazaindole - S1-3 (S = H2O and NH3) clusters

The photoinduced tautomerization reactions via hydrogen atom transfer in the excited electronic state (ESHT) have been computationally investigated in 2,7-diazaindole (27DAI) - (H₂O)_1-3 and 27DAI - (NH₃)_1-3 isolated clusters to understand the role of various solvent wires. Two competing ESHT reaction pathways originating from the N(1)-H group to the neighbouring N(7) (R_(1H-Sn-7H)) and N(2) (R_(1H-Sn-2H)) atoms were rigorously examined for each system. Both one- and two-dimensional potential energy surfaces have been calculated in the excited state to investigate the pathways. The R_(1H-Sn-7H) was found to be the dominant route with reaction barriers ranging from 26-40 kJmol^-1 for water clusters, and 14-26 kJmol^-1 for ammonia clusters. The barrier heights for ammonia clusters were found to be nearly half of the that observed for the water systems. The lengthening of the solvent chain up to two molecules resulted in a drastic decrease in the barrier heights for R_(1H-Sn-7H). The barriers of the competing reaction channel R_(1H-Sn-2H) were found to be significantly higher (31-127 kJmol^-1) but were observed to be decreasing with the lengthening of the solvent wire as in the R_(1H-Sn-7H) pathway. In both the reactions, the angle strain present in the transition state structures was dependent upon the solvent chain's length and was most likely the governing factor for the barrier heights in each solvent cluster. The results have also affirmed that the ammonia molecule is a better candidate for hydrogen transfer than water because of its higher gas-phase basicity. The results delineated from this investigation can pave the way to unravel the excited-state hydrogen atom transfer pathways in novel N-H bearing molecules.

Theoretical Insights into Excited-State Intermolecular Proton Transfers of 2,7-Diazaindole in Water Using a Microsolvation Approach

The detailed excited-state intermolecular proton transfer (ESInterPT) mechanism of 2,7-diazaindole with water wires consisting of either one or two shells [2,7-DAI(H₂O)_n; n = 1-5] has been theoretically explored by time-dependent density functional theory using microsolvation with an implicit solvent model. On the basis of the excited-state potential energy surfaces along the proton transfer (PT) coordinates, among all 2,7-DAI(H₂O)_n, the multiple ESInterPT of 2,7-DAI(H₂O)₂₊₃ through the first hydration shell (inner circuit) is the most easy process to occur with the lowest PT barrier and a highly exothermic reaction. The lowest PT barrier resulted from the outer three waters pushing the inner circuit waters to be much closer to 2,7-DAI, leading to the enhanced intermolecular hydrogen-bonding strength of the inner two waters. Moreover, on-the-fly dynamic simulations show that the multiple ESInterPT mechanism of 2,7-DAI(H₂O)₂₊₃ is the triple PT in a stepwise mechanism with the highest PT probability. This solvation effect using microsolvation and dynamic simulation is a cost-effect approach to reveal the solvent-assisted multiple proton relay of chromophores based on excited-state proton transfer.