Hydroquinone-benzonitrile system: intramolecular charge-transfer and computational studies
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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Excitonic Hamiltonians for Calculating Optical Absorption Spectra and Optoelectronic Properties of Molecular Aggregates and Solids
Published on: May 27, 2020
Kuangsen Sung1, Pin-Mei Huang, Chi-Han Zhou
1Department of Chemistry, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. kssung@mail.ncku.edu.tw
Abstract:
A novel intramolecular donor-acceptor system of hydroquinone-benzonitrile was synthesized. Its photo-induced intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) transition was confirmed by (1) shift of its emission maximum with increasing solvent polarity, (2) high dipole moment for the ICT excited state calculated from the Lippert equation, and (3) its HOMO and LUMO. According to the extent of separation between HOMO and LUMO, it is suggested that substituent position (ortho, meta, or para) in the donor-acceptor biphenyls is not a key point for the photo-induced intramolecular charge transfer and the donor with two alkoxy or hydroxy groups has more photo-induced charge transfer transitions than the one with one alkoxy or hydroxy group. In other words, the hydroquinone-benzonitrile system displays more photo-induced charge transfer transitions than 4COB (4-cyano-4'-butyloxybiphenyl).
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