Gas-phase Ion Spectroscopy of Flexible and Nonflexible Nitrophenolates: Effect of Locking the Two Phenyl Units in 4’-nitro-[1,1’-biphenyl]-4-olate by a Bridging Atom

Nitrophenolates (NPs) are molecular anions that can undergo charge-transfer (CT) transitions determined by the degree of electron delocalization between the phenolate oxygen (donor group) and the nitro group (acceptor). Here we have studied four different NPs: 4’-nitro-[1,1’-biphenyl]-4-olate (1), 7-nitro-9H -carbazol-2-olate (NH linker, 2), 7-nitrodibenzo[b,d]furan-3-olate (oxygen linker, 3), and 7-nitrodibenzo[b,d]thiophen-3-olate (sulphur linker, 4), and recorded their electronic absorption spectra when isolated in vacuo to determine the effect of locking the biphenyl spacer group between
the donor and acceptor on transition energies. Absorption was identified from ion dissociation (action spectroscopy) using a homebuilt setup (sector mass spectrometer combined with pulsed laser). We find that the absorption is broad in the visible region for all four NPs with significant vibronic features. The lowest energy peak is at 601 ± 4 nm, 606 ± 4 nm, 615 ± 4 nm, and 620 ± 4 nm, for 3, 4, 2, and 1, respectively. NP 1 is flexible, and its lowest
energy structure is nonplanar while the other three NPs are planar according to density functional theory calculations. Hence in the case of 1 the electronic transition has a higher degree of CT than for the other three, accounting for its absorption furthest to the red. Our work demonstrates that oxygen and sulphur are best at conveying the electronic coupling between the donor and acceptor sites as 3 and 4 absorb furthest to the blue (i.e., the degree of CT is lowest for these two NPs). Based on the average spacing between the peaks in the vibrational progressions, coupling occurs to skeleton vibrational modes with frequencies of 649 ± 69 cm−1 (3), 655 ± 49 cm−1 (4), and 697 ± 52 cm−1 (2).