First-principles characterization of the singlet excited state manifold in DNA/RNA nucleobases

An extensive theoretical characterization of the singlet excited state manifold of the five canonical DNA/RNA nucleobases (thymine, cytosine, uracil, adenine and guanine) in gas-phase is carried out with time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) and restricted active space second-order perturbation theory (RASPT2) approaches. Both ground state and excited state absorptions are analyzed and compared between these different theoretical approaches, assessing the performance of the hybrid B3LYP and CAM-B3LYP (long-range corrected) functionals with respect to the RASPT2 reference. By comparing the TD-DFT estimates with our reference for high-lying excited states, we are able to narrow do…

ChemInform Abstract: Excitation of Nucleobases from a Computational Perspective I: Reaction Paths

The main intrinsic photochemical events in nucleobases can be described on theoretical grounds within the realm of non-adiabatic computational photochemistry. From a static standpoint, the photochemical reaction path approach (PRPA), through the computation of the respective minimum energy path (MEP), can be regarded as the most suitable strategy in order to explore the electronically excited isolated nucleobases. Unfortunately, the PRPA does not appear widely in the studies reported in the last decade. The main ultrafast decay observed experimentally for the gas-phase excited nucleobases is related to the computed barrierless MEPs from the bright excited state connecting the initial Franck…

Front Cover: Modelling Photoionisation in Isocytosine: Potential Formation of Longer‐Lived Excited State Cations in its Keto Form (ChemPhysChem 21/2021)

Modelling Photoionisation in Isocytosine: Potential Formation of Longer‐Lived Excited State Cations in its Keto Form

The front cover artwork is provided by Dr. Javier Segarra-Martí (University of Valencia, Spain) and Prof. Michael J. Bearpark (Imperial College London, UK). The image shows the ultrafast photoionisation of DNA canonical nucleobase cytosine and the slower ionization process in non-canonical base isocytosine embedded within a DNA backbone. Read the full text of the Article at 10.1002/cphc.202100402.