Optical Properties of DMA-π-DCV Derivatives: A Theoretical Inspection under the DFT Microscope

Abstract

The optical properties of a series of donor-acceptor N,N-dimethylaniline-π-dicyanovinylene (DMA-π-DCV) chromophores have been investigated under the density functional theory framework. Focus has been made on the low-lying charge-transfer (CT) electronic transitions for which experimental data is available. The effect of theπ-conjugated bridge length and type was analysed between the families of oligoene and oligoyne derivatives of increasing size. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the ethylene bridge is a betterπ-communicator and allows for more delocalized frontier molecular orbitals compared to the acetylene spacer. TheΛdiagnostic test allowed rationalization of the orbital spatial overlap in the main CT excitations. The performance of different density functional rungs was assessed in the prediction of the lowest-lying CT electronic transition. Surprisingly, most modern long-range corrected functionals demonstrated to provide among the largest errors, whereas hybrid functionals showed the best performance. Solvatochromism was confirmed in both oligoene and oligoyne compounds. A donor-acceptor-donor triad based on tetrathiafulvalene was utilised as a test system for the prediction of its two CT bands of different nature, energy, and intensity. The hybrid PBE0 (or a similar hybrid analogue) consolidates as the best choice for the prediction of CT excitations in the DMA-π-DCV push-pull family.