5.7. UV–Vis spectral analysis
The time dependent density functional method (TD-DFT) is able
to detect accurate absorption wavelengths at a relatively small
computing time which correspond to vertical electronic transitions
computed on the ground state geometry, especially in the study of
solvent effect [50–52]; thus TD-DFT method is used with B3LYP
function and 6-31G(d,p) basis set for vertical excitation energy of
electronic spectra. Calculations are performed for vacuum/gas
phase, and DMSO environment. Molecules allow strong p–p and
r–r transition in the UV–Vis region with high extinction coeffi-
cients. Ultraviolet spectra analyses of dibenzalacetone have been
researched by theoretical calculation. On the basis of a fully optimized
ground state structure, the electronic spectra of DBA were
computed in the gas phase as well as in a DMSO environment using
TD-DFT method. In an attempt to understand the nature of electronic
transitions, positions of experimental absorption peaks, calculated
absorption peaks (kmax’s), vertical excitation energies,
oscillator strengths (f) and assignments of the transitions of the
DBA molecule were calculated and the results are presented in Table
6. The experimental UV–Vis spectrum is shown in Fig. 7. TDDFT
calculations predict three transitions in the UV–Vis region
for dibenzalacetone molecule. The electronic absorption peak of
368 nm (27.174 cm1
) corresponds to the transition from the
ground to the first excited state in the gas phase and peak of
352 nm (28.409 cm1
) corresponds to the transition from the
ground to the first excited state in the solvent medium. This calculations
(for vertical transition) agrees well with the experimentally
observed p ? p band. It is mainly described by one electron
excitation from the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)
to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO).
The absorption band at 312 and 327 nm corresponds to the
transition from the ground to the second excited state in the gas
phase and solvent medium, respectively as shown in Table 6. The
calculated band was compared with the experimental value of
329.5 nm (30.349 cm1
), 259.5 nm (38.536 cm1
) and 248.5 nm
(40.241 cm1
) for DBA molecule. However, the oscillator strength
for for the second transition is higher than that for the first one. The
broadening and intensity enhancement of the UV–Vis absorption
spectrum clearly indicates the charge transfer interaction.