0000000000164945
AUTHOR
Fernando Bernardi
A theoretical study of the lowest electronic states of azobenzene: the role of torsion coordinate in the cis-trans photoisomerization
In the present paper we report the results of a multiconigurational computational study on potential- energy curves of azobenzene along the NN twisting to clarify the role of this coordinate in the decay of the S2(pp*) and S1(np*) states. We have found that there is a singlet state, S3 at the trans geometry, on the basis of the doubly excited coniguration n 2 p* 2 , that has a deep minimum at about 90 of twisting, where it is the lowest excited singlet state. The existence of this state provides an explanation for the short lifetime of S2(pp*) and for the wavelength-dependence of azobenzene photochem- istry. We have characterized the S1(np*) state by calcu- lating its vibrational frequencie…
Structure, Spectroscopy, and Spectral Tuning of the Gas-Phase Retinal Chromophore: The β-Ionone "Handle" and Alkyl Group Effect
The low-lying singlet states (i.e. S0, S1, and S2) of the chromophore of rhodopsin, the protonated Schiff base of 11-cis-retinal (PSB11), and of its all-trans photoproduct have been studied in isolated conditions by using ab initio multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory. The computed spectroscopic features include the vertical excitation, the band origin, and the fluorescence maximum of both isomers. On the basis of the S0-->S1 vertical excitation, the gas-phase absorption maximum of PSB11 is predicted to be 545 nm (2.28 eV). Thus, the predicted absorption maximum appears to be closer to that of the rhodopsin pigment (2.48 eV) and considerably red-shifted with respect to that…
Computational evidence in favor of a two-state, two-mode model of the retinal chromophore photoisomerization
In this paper we use ab initio multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory to establish the intrinsic photoisomerization path model of retinal chromophores. This is accomplished by computing the ground state ( S 0 ) and the first two singlet excited-state ( S 1 , S 2 ) energies along the rigorously determined photoisomerization coordinate of the rhodopsin chromophore model 4- cis -γ-methylnona-2,4,6,8-tetraeniminium cation and the bacteriorhodopsin chromophore model all- trans -hepta-2,4,6-trieniminium cation in isolated conditions. The computed S 2 and S 1 energy profiles do not show any avoided crossing feature along the S 1 reaction path and maintain an energy gap >20 kcal⋅…