TDDFT calculations and photoacoustic spectroscopy experiments used to identify phenolic acid functional biomolecules in Brazilian tropical fruits in natura

Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations of electronic transitions have been widely used to determine molecular structures. The excitation wavelengths and oscillator strengths obtained with the hybrid exchange-correlation functional B3LYP in conjunction with the ADZP basis set are employed to simulate the UV-Vis spectra of eight phenolic acids. Experimental and theoretical UV-Vis spectra reported previously in the literature are compared with our results. The fast, sensitive and non-destructive technique of photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) is used to determine the UV-Vis spectra of four Brazilian tropical fresh fruits in natura. Then, the PAS along with the TDDFT results are for the first time used to investigate and identify the presence of phenolic acids in the fruits studied in this work. This theoretical method with this experimental technique show to be a powerful and cheap tool to detect the existence of phenolic acids in fruits, vegetables, cereals, and grains. Comparison with high performance liquid chromatography results, when available, is also carried out.