A SEMI-EMPIRICAL SELF-CONSISTENT FIELD MOLECULAR ORBITAL (SCF-MO) STUDY OF THE GROUND STATE PROPERTIES OF SUBSTITUTED NAPHTHALENE COMPOUNDS

Abstract

The ground and excited state properties of naphthalene and some of its derivatives have been studied. The molecular orbitals were evaluated using the modified Huckel Molecular Orbital (HMO) theory and the calculated molecular properties such as dipole moments, electronic transition frequencies, have been compared with experimental values. The electronic absorption spectra of some of the compounds were further studied in detail as to their band systems and characteristics, solvent polarity effects and hydrogen bonding effects. The dipole moment changes from ground to excited states were generally determined to be high. A linear regression analysis obtained for plots of the 'L(b) band maxima (υ(obs) versus solvent physical properties and solvent empirical parameters has shown that there is no meaningful correlation between solvent dielectric constant (ɛ) and solvent induced shifts. The oscillator strengths have been found to be generally low for the examined compounds in all the solvents. However, the electronic relaxation times calculated for each of the compounds give strong indication as to the likelihood of the band systems arising from mixed states. The relationship between relaxation times, t, and solvent viscosities,ᶯ, allows the prediction of large changes in spherical symmetries of the two band systems ('La and ’Lb) in both 1-naphthylamine and 4-nitro-l-naphthylamine. A possible existence of free internal rotation in the excited states of these molecules, has thus been suggested. The infrared spectra have been studied in the solid state and in solution and the vibrational frequencies assigned by making correlations with spectra of substituted benzene compounds and other related compounds. The substituent modes for each of the compounds have been discussed in detail.