Gourab
Chatterjee‡§
a,
Ajay
Jha¶§
a,
Alejandro
Blanco-Gonzalez§
b,
Vandana
Tiwari
ac,
Madushanka
Manathunga
b,
Hong-Guang
Duan
a,
Friedjof
Tellkamp
a,
Valentyn I.
Prokhorenko
a,
Nicolas
Ferré
d,
Jyotishman
Dasgupta
e,
Massimo
Olivucci
*bf and
R. J. Dwayne
Miller
*g
aMax Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
bDepartment of Chemistry, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA. E-mail: olivucci@unisi.it
cDepartment of Chemistry, University of Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King Platz 6, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
dAix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, ICR, 13013 Marseille, France
eDepartment of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, 400005, India
fDipartimento di Biotechnologie, Chimica e Farmacia, Università di Siena, I-53100, Siena, Italy
gDepartments of Chemistry and Physics, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto M5S 3H6, Canada. E-mail: dmiller@lphys.chem.utoronto.ca
First published on 19th July 2022
The concerted interplay between reactive nuclear and electronic motions in molecules actuates chemistry. Here, we demonstrate that out-of-plane torsional deformation and vibrational excitation of stretching motions in the electronic ground state modulate the charge-density distribution in a donor-bridge-acceptor molecule in solution. The vibrationally-induced change, visualised by transient absorption spectroscopy with a mid-infrared pump and a visible probe, is mechanistically resolved by ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. Mapping the potential energy landscape attributes the observed charge-coupled coherent nuclear motions to the population of the initial segment of a double-bond isomerization channel, also seen in biological molecules. Our results illustrate the pivotal role of pre-twisted molecular geometries in enhancing the transfer of vibrational energy to specific molecular modes, prior to thermal redistribution. This motivates the search for synthetic strategies towards achieving potentially new infrared-mediated chemistry.
Here, we explore the possibility of using vibrational excitation in the electronic ground state (S0) to trigger CCNM initiating a double-bond torsional deformation, without resorting to photoinduced electronic excitation. We consider a model system – a push–pull stilbazolium-based donor-bridge-acceptor molecule,5–8trans-4-[4-(N,N-dimethylamino)styryl]-1-methylpyridinium iodide (DASPMI, Fig. 1A). It features an ethylenic bridge connecting the amino-based donor and positively-charged pyridinium-ion acceptor units. There is a growing consensus in recent years advocating the vibrational perturbation of the bridge between a donor and an acceptor to successfully manipulate charge transfer, albeit in S1.9–14 Here, we investigate the effect of the vibrational excitation of the ethylenic bridge moiety in DASPMI in S0. In a π-conjugated polyene (such as DASPMI), it may be envisaged to cause bond-length alternation (BLA) – the elongation of the double bonds coupled with a shortening of the single bonds. As illustrated in Fig. 1A, this would, in principle, prompt the translocation of the pyridinium charge and, effectively, electronically unlock the central double-bond ethylenic bridge. Here, we utilise an experimentally amenable infrared-active high-frequency BLA mode to increase the vibrational energy of the ethylenic bridge and follow the energy flow towards coupled key reactive torsional modes. Our results demonstrate the activation of a low-frequency vibrational mode, which remains detectable for several picoseconds. The underlying mechanism is revealed by complementary computational studies, which support the hypothesis that the vibrational perturbation ultimately results in the activation of biomimetic CCNM, corresponding to the bridge torsion. The simulations also reveal that the vibrational activation requires a pre-existing torsional symmetry-breaking of the bridge-localized ethylenic bond. In fact, only with a thermally pre-twisted configuration, the deposited infrared photon energy can efficiently initiate double-bond bridge-centric torsion.15,16 This offers the intriguing prospect of synthetically modifying the molecule or its environment to populate larger segments of the S0 isomerization path.
A global fitting analysis of the transient absorption spectra allows examining the population decay following the vibrational excitation, which is consistent with typical vibrational relaxation dynamics (Fig. 2B). Distinct time-domain oscillations, manifested in the global-analysis residuals (Fig. 2B), correspond to Fourier-domain frequencies up to 50 cm−1, with a prominent spectral peak at 30 cm−1 (Fig. 2C).
The negative differential absorption signal can be attributed to the bleach of the initial thermally-populated low-lying vibrational levels (predominantly v = 0) in S0. It arises due to the population transfer to the higher vibrational levels in S0. The projection of this vibrationally-excited S0 population onto S1 produces the positive differential absorption signal. The anharmonicity of S0 determines its Franck–Condon overlap with S1, and therefore the spectral location of the transient absorption signals. The temporal oscillations in the transient absorption signal may be assigned to the vibrational coherence due to the excitation of an anharmonically coupled low-frequency mode.
In order to gain insight into the vibrationally-induced dynamics, simulations within the multi-configurational complete active space self-consistent field and second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2//CASSCF) framework17 are performed. The population dynamics of a realistic fully solvated model of the entire DASPMI chromophore in dichloromethane is simulated over a time-period of 2 ps with 400 trajectories (further details in ESI and Fig. S6–S15†). On creating the vibrationally-excited BLA-activated S0 population, the oscillator strength, f, for the electronic transition from S0 to S1 increases by ∼30% from f = 0.86 to f = 1.11 (ESI Fig. S7†). This is a consequence of the geometric changes induced by the vibrational excitation and accounts for the appearance of the transient absorption signal observed experimentally. Moreover, the temporal evolution of f reflects a pronounced oscillatory behaviour (Fig. 4A) with conspicuous frequency components peaked at 50 cm−1 and in the vicinity of 1250 cm−1 (Fig. 4B). The former low-frequency component matches the experimentally observed time-domain oscillations in the transient absorption signal (Fig. 2C), whereas the latter high-frequency components are beyond the time-resolution limit of our experimental detection scheme. The time-domain oscillations with frequencies of 50 cm−1 and 1250 cm−1 are further echoed in the energy gap, E, and the charge difference, q, between S0 and S1 (Fig. 4A and B).
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Fig. 3 Visualisation of the geometric parameters. The C2–C3![]() ![]() |
To correlate the observed oscillatory temporal dynamics in f, E and q to mechanistic information in terms of CCNM, we survey the time evolution of bridge-localized modes that are anharmonically coupled. Of particular interest are the C2–C3C4–C5 dihedral angle, α, the H–C3
C4–H dihedral angle, β, the π-overlap, τ = (α + β)/2, describing the double-bond torsional deformation, and the BLA localized mode of the ethylenic bridge (Fig. 3). It immediately follows (Fig. 4A–D) that the low-frequency oscillations around 50 cm−1 in f, E and q may be attributed to a torsional deformation of the ethylenic bridge, represented by α. This is accompanied by vibrations along the BLA coordinate, which are responsible for inducing the high-frequency oscillations around 1250 cm−1 in f, E and q. On the contrary, β, signifying the in-phase hydrogen-out-of-plane (HOOP) motion, displays oscillations at a frequency of 1050 cm−1, which is not manifested in the observed temporal dynamics of f, E and q. Consequently, these results trace the origin of the vibronic coupling between S0 and S1 by attributing the modulations in the electronic parameters, f, E and q, to the vibrational parameters, BLA and α. To summarise, the BLA-activated S0 vibrations, which initiate the translocation of the pyridinium charge and the electronic unlocking of the C3
C4 ethylenic bridge, are primarily responsible for the modulation of the oscillator strength, f, for the S0 → S1 transition, when coupled to α (further details in ESI and Table S1†). This accounts for the experimental transient absorption signal and reproduces the observed mode-coupling effect, reflecting the vibronic nature of the key modes, BLA and α. Furthermore, α determines, together with β, the magnitude of τ, and therefore the change in the p-orbital overlap associated with the C3
C4 π-bond torsional deformation.
Our simulations use a hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) model of the solvated molecule and therefore include all the vibrational degrees of freedom of the system – both solute and solvation shell. The forces, which are computed on-the-fly along the trajectories, are quantum-chemical (that is, not parametrised) for DASPMI and empirical for the solvent molecules, and thus include the description of the anharmonic PES. Therefore, the thermally equilibrated S0 population contains pre-twisted structures that rapidly couple low-frequency torsional modes and high-frequency stretching modes upon relaxation. Trajectory analysis shows that the oscillatory modulation in the dynamics (Fig. 4A–D) predominantly originates from this pre-twisted initial thermal sub-population (values of α far from planarity), defined by a velocity threshold of >1° fs−1 on the π-overlap angle, τ, along the ethylenic bridge. In other words, it is necessary to have a substantial torsionally broken symmetry for the infrared excitation to efficiently produce the observed CCNM event. This is further illustrated by the demarcation between the pre-twisted (Fig. 4A–D) and the primarily planar initial thermal S0 sub-populations (Fig. 4E and F). In the initial planar configuration (Fig. 4E and F), BLA and α are uncoupled and do not lead to a detectable oscillatory motion in the simulation. This is markedly different from the initial pre-twisted configuration (Fig. 4A–D), which enhances the torsional deformation along α through the vibrational coupling with BLA.
The observed oscillatory dynamics corresponds to the initial progression along a double-bond isomerization coordinate in S0 induced by a CCNM event. This is corroborated by mapping the S0 PES (Fig. 5A) along the BLA and α coordinates (further details in ESI†). Noticeably, the PES map discloses two S0 isomerization paths separated by the minimum-energy conical intersection, CI, between S0 and S1 (Fig. 5A). Both paths involve transition states (TS) with highly non-planar and torsionally distorted (α ∼ 90°) geometries. However, the region characterized by increased BLA is associated with increased charge-transfer character, consistent with a CCNM event, and quantified by the partial charge, ρ, localized on the acceptor moiety. This reiterates the significance of both BLA and α, which are known to be intricately linked to facilitating S1 charge transfer in conjugated polyenes.18 The salient feature of the PES map, however, is that the charge-transfer transition state, TSCT, mediating heterolytic bond-breaking, provides a significantly lower energy barrier (39 kcal mol−1), compared to the diradical (or covalent) transition state, TSdir (49 kcal mol−1), responsible for homolytic bond-breaking. Essentially, the CCNM event prompted by the vibrational excitation reallocates the charge-density distribution in DASPMI. This causes a decrease in the π-overlap along the ethylenic bridge, which permits a more unrestrained torsional motion that mimics the S1 unlocking event described above. Of course, while such an S1 event would lead to isomerization, in S0, the reported energy barrier results in the population of only the initial segment of the S0 isomerization coordinate leading to TSCT, reaching torsional deformations up to ∼40° (Fig. 6).
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Fig. 5 Ground-state reaction pathways. (A) PES of S0 as a function of the torsional deformation represented by the C2–C3![]() |
Parameters | Average minimum | Average maximum | Absolute minimum | Absolute maximum |
---|---|---|---|---|
BLA (10−10 m) | −0.024 | 0.202 | −0.33 | 0.57 |
α (°) | 171.42 | 185.02 | 146.26 | 215.99 |
ρ | 0.61 | 0.97 | 0.27 | 1.02 |
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Fig. 6 Visualization of the ground-state isomerization pathway in DASPMI. Optimized geometries for (A), the planar reactant trans-isomer, (B), a representative snapshot from one of the 400 trajectories, showing a torsional deformation of ∼40°, (C), the highly distorted charge-transfer transition state, TSCT, and (D), the product cis-isomer. (ESI Fig. S15† provides the view along the molecular plane to illustrate the torsional deformation induced in the course of the trajectory simulations.) |
The charge-transfer parameter, ρ, for the vibrationally-excited S0 population reaches a maximum value of 0.27 in the simulations, which equates to a fractional change of 0.64 with respect to the trans-isomer reactant state. For comparison, the fractional change in ρ for TSCT is 0.87. This shows the considerable charge-transfer character (ψCT) imparted to the vibrationally-excited S0 state, which initially has a primarily covalent character (ψCOV).
Interestingly, the S0 PES of DASPMI (Fig. 5A) has a striking resemblance to that in bovine rhodopsin (Fig. 7), the retinal protein responsible for mammalian vision. The retinal isomerization in rhodopsin-like photoreceptors4,19–21,30 represents an archetypal example of complex biological machinery amenable to precise experimental and theoretical inspection. In addition to the widely studied photoisomerization channel in rhodopsin triggered by electronic excitation, quantum chemical modelling of the S0 PES of rhodopsin (Fig. 7) has unveiled the existence of a thermal isomerization pathway.3 The reaction (Fig. 7) is initially mediated by a high-frequency BLA stretching mode, which is coupled to a reactive double-bond torsional deformation, α, and ultimately forms a fully twisted charge-transfer transition state, TSCT. This imitates the S0 dynamics in DASPMI and justifies its biomimetic nature.
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Fig. 7 Ground-state thermal isomerization in rhodopsin. Schematic representation of the S0 PES of the retinal chromophore in bovine rhodopsin, Rh, to demonstrate the biomimetic nature of DASPMI. The PES is mapped as a function of the BLA and the torsion, α, coordinates.3 The different regions are representative of the different predominant electronic configurations, denoted by the covalent and charge-transfer electronic wavefunctions, ψCOV and ψCT, respectively. The photoisomerization pathway following electronic excitation proceeds via the conical intersection (CI) towards the formation of the isomerization product state, bathoRh. The CI is energetically located above the transition state with diradical character, TSdir. On the contrary, S0 thermal activation provides an isomerization pathway via a charge-transfer transition state, TSCT, which offers the lowest energy barrier threshold between the reactant and product states in S0. The Lewis resonance formulae associated with the covalent and the charge-transfer electronic configurations of the cationic rhodopsin chromophore (the protonated Schiff base of 11-cis retinal) are also shown, highlighting the reactive ethylenic bond, along which the isomerization occurs. |
Furthermore, our simulations provide evidence that the coupling between the BLA and torsional modes is intrinsically enhanced by the thermal pre-twisting of the DASPMI molecular framework about the reactive double bond. In order to experimentally achieve further progress along the isomerization coordinate, this mode-coupling needs to be adequately enhanced. This may be made possible by synthetic modifications, resulting in an enhanced pre-twisted initial population. Alternatively, incorporating the reactant in specific molecular environments (such as molecular cavities) can amplify the mode-coupling to decrease the activation threshold and reach the critical TSCT state. Our results may be envisaged to encourage the synthesis of DASPMI homologues or suitable molecular hosts, leading to lower isomerization barriers as models for future investigations. The implications of our results can also be appreciated in perspective of the ubiquity of charge-transfer reactions. Contrary to S1 charge-transfer processes, the capacity to regulate the input vibrational energy posits a means to control the extent of a CCNM event in S0 (Fig. 5). Here, it provides the premise for driving isomerization – yet another ubiquitous process in chemistry and biology – in S0.
Footnotes |
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See https://doi.org/10.1039/d2sc02133a |
‡ Present address: Central Laser Facility, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Research Complex at Harwell, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus, Didcot OX11 0QX, UK. |
§ These authors contributed equally to this work. |
¶ Present address: The Rosalind Franklin Institute, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus, Didcot OX11 0FA, UK. |
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