Proton transfer induced excited-state aromaticity gain for chromophores with maximal Stokes shifts.

ABSTRACT: Excited state aromaticity (ESA) offers a fascinating route for driving photophysical and photochemical processes but is challenging to harness fully due to its inherent association with unstable antiaromatic ground states. Here, we propose to circumvent this problem via the introduction of a new class of photophysical processes, the generation of ESA via an excited-state intramolecular proton transfer. We select twelve candidate molecules based on the cyclobutadiene and pentalene scaffolds and investigate their ground and excited state properties using computation. The study highlights the feasibility of proton transfer induced ESA gain and shows that it gives rise to pronounced excited-state relaxation producing Stokes shifts in excess of 2 eV. The underlying electronic stru

SUBMITTER: Xing D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11463706 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature