On the photorelease of nitric oxide by nitrobenzene derivatives: A CASPT2//CASSCF model

Nitroaromatic compounds can photorelease nitric oxide after UV absorption. The efficiency of the photoreaction depends on the molecular structure, and two features have been pointed out as particularly important for the yield of the process: the presence of methyl groups at the ortho position with respect to the nitro group and the degree of conjugation of the molecule. In this paper, we provide a theoretical characterization at the CASPT2//CASSCF (complete active space second-order perturbation theory//complete active space self-consistent field) level of theory of the photorelease of NO for four molecules derived from nitrobenzene through the addition of ortho methyl groups and/or the elongation of the conjugation. Our previously described mechanism obtained for the photorelease of NO in nitrobenzene has been adopted as a model for the process. According to this model, the process proceeds through a reactive singlet–triplet crossing (STC) region that the system can reach from the triplet 3(πOπ*) minimum. The energy barrier that must be surmounted in order to populate the reactive STC can be associated with the efficiency of the photoreaction. Here, the obtained results display clear differences in the efficiency of the photoreaction in the studied systems and can be correlated with experimental results. Thus, the model proves its ability to highlight the differences in the photoreaction efficiency for the nitroaromatic compounds studied here.