Theoretical study of the solvent effects on the molecular structure and vibrational spectra of 2-hydroxy-4-methyl-3-nitropyridine

Theoretical study of the spectroscopic and nonlinear optical properties of trans- and cis-4-hydroxyazobenzene

We investigate the molecular structure, vibrational and electronic absorption spectra, and electronic hyperpolarizabilities of trans and cis isomers of 4-hydroxyazobenzene (HOAB) via density functional theory. Results show that the azo dye exhibits a high third-order nonlinear optical response and good optical transparency. Both the basis set and the functional are important influences on the results obtained when calculating the absorption spectrum and NLO response. We also study the effect of the solvent on the electronic absorption spectrum to assess the ability of the functional to reproduce the experimental spectrum in combination with a suitable solvent model. Our calculations show that the SMD model of Truhlar et al. handles the electrostatic and the non-electrostatic effects of hydrogen-bonding solvents on the absorption spectrum better than the traditional polarizable continuum model does. In addition, our results indicate that the dye trans-HOAB exhibits a high second hyperpolarizability and excellent optical transparency. Also, although the second hyperpolarizability of cis-HOAB is much lower than that of trans-HOAB, it is non-negligible when calculating the optical nonlinearity of HOAB under an optical pump. We also examine the effect of frequency dispersion on second harmonic generation. This study provides the basis for further research on the spectroscopic and nonlinear optical properties of novel azo dyes and other π-conjugated compounds.

Effects of Structure and Environment on the Spectroscopic Properties of (3-Amino-Substituted-Thieno[2,3-b] Pyridine-2-yl)Pyridine/Quinolin-2-yl)(Phenyl)Methanones: Experimental and Theoretical Study

The electronic absorption, excitation and fluorescence properties of two 3-amino-substituted-thieno[2,3-b]pyridine/quinolin-2-yl)(phenyl)methanones; (referred to as compounds 1-2: where 3-amino-4,5,6-trimethyl-thieno[2,3-b]pyridin-2-yl)(phenyl)methanone (1); and 3-amino-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-thieno[2,3-b]quinolin-2-yl)(phenyl)methanone (2)) have been investigated in solvents of various polarity and hydrogen-bonding abilities. Results based on the electronic absorption, excitation and emission study of these compounds; indicated that singlets (S1 and S2) excited-states are populated in non-polar and polar protic/aprotic solvents giving dual fluorescence with weak charge transfer separation. The experimental results were interpreted with the aid of quantum chemistry calculations carried out with the DFT and TD-DFT/B3lyp/6-31 + G(d,p) methods. Based on these calculations, compounds 1-2 exist in two rotamers: anti and syn, separated by ca. 5-6 kcal mol(-1) energy barriers in favor of the anti-conformer. The anti-structure, was shown to be stabilized through existence of intramolecular NH…O hydrogen bond (H-b), which plays a dominant role in affecting the energy of the HOMO-1 molecular orbital. Further, methyl/alkyl substitution in the pyridyl-thiophene ring was shown to involve in σ-π hyper-conjugation and destabilization of the HOMO-1 MO's.