The electrophilic descriptor

Effect of Substituents on Molecular Reactivity during Lignin Oxidation by Chlorine Dioxide: A Density Functional Theory Study

Lignin is a polymer with a complex structure. It is widely present in lignocellulosic biomass, and it has a variety of functional group substituents and linkage forms. Especially during the oxidation reaction, the positioning effect of the different substituents of the benzene ring leads to differences in lignin reactivity. The position of the benzene ring branched chain with respect to methoxy is important. The study of the effect of benzene substituents on the oxidation reaction's activity is still an unfinished task. In this study, density functional theory (DFT) and the m062x/6-311+g (d) basis set were used. Differences in the processes of phenolic oxygen intermediates formed by phenolic lignin structures (with different substituents) with chlorine dioxide during the chlorine dioxide reaction were investigated. Six phenolic lignin model species with different structures were selected. Bond energies, electrostatic potentials, atomic charges, Fukui functions and double descriptors of lignin model substances and reaction energy barriers are compared. The effects of benzene ring branched chains and methoxy on the mechanism of chlorine dioxide oxidation of lignin were revealed systematically. The results showed that the substituents with shorter branched chains and strong electron-absorbing ability were more stable. Lignin is not easily susceptible to the effects of chlorine dioxide. The substituents with longer branched chains have a significant effect on the flow of electron clouds. The results demonstrate that chlorine dioxide can affect the electron arrangement around the molecule, which directly affects the electrophilic activity of the molecule. The electron-absorbing effect of methoxy leads to a low dissociation energy of the phenolic hydroxyl group. Electrophilic reagents are more likely to attack this reaction site. In addition, the stabilizing effect of methoxy on the molecular structure of lignin was also found.

Comparative studies of excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) and azo-hydrazone tautomerism in naphthalene-based fluorescent acid azo dyes by computational study

We found that benzothiazole is responsible for enhancing fastness properties of dyes. On comparing the total electronic energies of naphthol tautomers (−1425.16 eV) and its analogs (−2146.59 eV), we found that benzothiazolyl series is more stable than the naphthol series. Frontier Molecular Orbitals (FMOs) also show flow of charge transfer from the donor to the acceptor in benzothiazole-containing compounds, whereas it is absent in plane naphthol series. Among the benzothiazolyl isomers, the hydrazone form is found to be more stable and responsible for fluorescence possession. Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO)–Lowest Occupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO) energy band gap also indicates the same. Electrophilicity index and hyper-hardness values of both the series were found to be positive which directly ratifies photostability and reactivity. Benzothiazolyl series was found to be more stable, hence light fastness, enhanced.

Fluorescent styryl chromophores with rigid (pyrazole) donor and rigid (benzothiophenedioxide) acceptor – complete density functional theory (DFT), TDDFT and nonlinear optical study

Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT computations were employed to examine linear and nonlinear optical (NLO) characteristics of (E)-4-((1,1-dioxido-3-oxobenzo[b]thiophen-2(3H)-ylidene) ethyl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-5(4H)-one derived styryl dyes. NLO properties were computed using the two different global hybrid functionals B3LYP, BHandHLYP and three range separated hybrid functionals CAM B3LYP, wB97, wB97X and wB97XD with the basis sets 6–311++G(d,p), cc-pVDZ and cc-pVTZ. The compounds shows higher values of dipole moment around 8–9 Debye than the other compounds. They show higher values of α 0, ß 0 and γ 0 values. The values of γ 0 are around 204–544 × 10−36 e.s.u. with the method, B3LYP/6–311++G(d, p). We have calculated the mean absolute error (MAE) for dipole moment, α 0, ß 0 and γ 0 values. It is observed that MAE is less (0.89) for wB97/6–311++G(d,p) which indicates that wB97 is the most suited functional for all three compounds. Chemical stability and reactivity of these dyes were studied using electrophilicity index and chemical hardness and hyperhardness.

Static- and frequency-dependent NLO properties of dithienothiophene and thienothiophene bridges — A computational investigation

We have explored detailed linear and nonlinear optical properties of push-pull systems bearing thienothiophene and dithienothiophene spacers. By using density functional theory (DFT), frequency-dependent strategies were applied to examine the polarizability ([Formula: see text] and hyperpolarizability ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. The set of global and range-separated hybrid functionals with different Hartree–Fock (HF) exchange percentage at two basis sets cc-pVDZ and cc-pVTZ were used to evaluate the nonlinear optical (NLO) properties. The observed trends in the absorption maxima supported by perturbation potential analysis; as the absorption maxima increases, the respective amplitude potential decreases. For the investigated compounds, [Formula: see text]-conjugation along with the type of substituted acceptor plays a crucial role in the enhancement of NLO properties. The presence of acceptor group and length of conjugation increase between the D and A group; the first- and second-order intrinsic hyperpolarizability increases, leads to enhanced first- as well as second-order hyperpolarizability. Bond length alternation (BLA)/bond order alteration (BOA) exploration suggested that compounds attain cyanine limit. The trends in NLO properties for investigated compounds are supported by chemical reactivity descriptors, hardness and hyperhardness analysis. The polarizability is linearly correlated with the hyperpolarizability parameters ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] and shows a good regression coefficient by figures of merit analysis.