Performance of DFT methods in the calculation of optical spectra of TCF-chromophores

We present electronic structure calculations of the ultraviolet/visible (UV-vis) spectra of highly active push-pull chromophores containing the tricyanofuran (TCF) acceptor group. In particular, we have applied the recently developed long-range corrected Baer-Neuhauser-Livshits (BNL) exchange-correlation functional. The performance of this functional compares favorably with other density functional theory (DFT) approaches, including the CAM-B3LYP functional. The accuracy of UV-vis results for these molecules is best at low values of attenuation parameters (γ) for both BNL and CAM-B3LYP functionals. The optimal value of γ is different for the charge-transfer (CT) and π-π excitations. The BNL and PBE0 exchange correlation functionals capture the CT states particularly well, while the π-π excitations are less accurate and system dependent. Chromophore conformations, which considerably affect the molecular hyperpolarizability, do not significantly influence the UV-vis spectra on average. As expected, the color of chromophores is a sensitive function of modifications to its conjugated framework and is not significantly affected by increasing aliphatic chain length linking a chromophore to a polymer. For selected push-pull aryl-chromophores, we find a significant dependence of absorption spectra on the strength of diphenylaminophenyl donors.