Density functional theory calculations on azobenzene derivatives: a comparative study of functional group effect

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been used to investigate the structural properties, dipole moments, polarizabilities, Gibbs energies, hardness, electronegativity, HOMO/LUMO energies, and chemical potentials of trans and cis configurations of eight para-substituted azobenzene derivatives. All properties have been obtained using the B3LYP functional and 6-31++G(d,p) basis set. The planar structures have been obtained for all optimized trans configurations. The energy difference between trans and cis configurations for considered derivatives was found to be between 64.2-73.1 kJ/mole. It has been obtained that the p-aminodiazo-benzene (ADAB) has the difference in the dipole moments between trans and cis forms higher than for trans and cis azobenzene.