A Theoretical Study of Solvent Effect on the Excited State Intramolecular Proton Transfer of 3‐Hydroxyflavone

In order to study the effect of solvents polarity on the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) processes of 3-hydroxyflavone (3HF) in detail, the ESIPT processes of 3HF in toluene, dichloromethane (DCM), and acetonitrile (ACN) were investigated using theoretical methods. The stable configurations of 3HF in ground (S-0) and excited (S-1) states were optimized. The critical configuration parameters, infrared (IR) vibrational spectra, absorption and fluorescence spectra, frontier molecular orbitals (MOs), charge distribution, and potential energy curves were calculated. The intramolecular hydrogen bonds are obviously enhanced and the electronic density redistributes when excited to S-1 state. The strengthening of intramolecular hydrogen bonds and the redistribution of electronic density are beneficial to the ESIPT processes. The analysis of potential energy curves show that the proton transfer processes are feasible in thermodynamics in S-1 state, but not in S-0 state. In addition, the intramolecular hydrogen bonds gradually weaken when the solvents polarity increases from toluene, DCM to ACN. As the solvents polarity increases, the ESIPT processes are more and more difficult to occur. It can be concluded that the strength of intramolecular hydrogen bonds will be affected by the solvents polarity, and the strength of intramolecular hydrogen bonds are directly related to the difficulty of the ESIPT processes.