Theoretical study on excited states of bacteriochlorophyll a in solutions with density functional assessment

The excited-state properties of bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) a in triethylamine, 1-propanol, and methanol are investigated with the time-dependent density functional theory by using the quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical reweighting free energy self-consistant field method. It is found that no prevalent density functionals can reproduce the experimental excited-state properties, i.e., the absorption and reorganization energies, of BChl a in the solutions. The parameter μ in the range-separated hybrid functional is therefore optimized to reproduce the differences of the absorption energies in the solutions. We examine the origin of the differences of the absorption energies in the solutions and find that sensitive balance between contributions of structural changes and solute-solvent interactions determines the differences. The accurate description of the excitation with the density functional with the adjusted parameter is therefore essential to the understanding of the excited-state properties of BChl a in proteins and also the mechanism of the photosynthetic systems.