Intersystem Crossing Processes in Nonplanar Aromatic Heterocyclic Molecules
10490 J. Phys. Chem. A 2007, 111, 10490-10499 Intersystem Crossing Processes in Nonplanar Aromatic Heterocyclic Molecules Karin Schmidt,*,† Sergio Brovelli,‡ Veaceslav Coropceanu,† David Beljonne,†,§ Je´roˆme Cornil,†,§ Cristina Bazzini,| Tullio Caronna,| Riccardo Tubino,‡ Francesco Meinardi,‡ Zhigang Shuai,⊥ and Jean-Luc Bre´das*,† School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Center of Organic Photonics and Electronics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0400, CNISM e Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, UniVersita` di Milano Bicocca, Via Cozzi 53, I-20125 Milano, Italy, SerVice de Chimie des Mate´riaux NouVeaux, Centre de Recherche en Electronique et Photonique Mole´culaires, UniVersite´ de Mons-Hainaut, B-7000 Mons, Belgium, Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale della Facolta` di Ingegneria, UniVersita` di Bergamo, Viale Marconi 5, I-24044 Dalmine (BG), Italy, and Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100080 Beijing, P. R. China ReceiVed: July 5, 2007 A comprehensive study of the photophysical properties of a series of monoaza[5]helicenes is presented on the basis of joint optical spectroscopy and quantum chemistry investigations. The molecules have been characterized by absorption and CW/time-resolved luminescence measurements. All quantities related to spin- orbit-coupling processes, such as intersystem crossing rates and radiative phosphorescence lifetimes, were found to depend strongly on the nitrogen position within the carbon backbone. Density functional theory and semiempirical quantum-chemical methods were used to evaluate the molecular geometries, the characteristics of the excited singlet and triplet states, and the spin-orbit coupling matrix elements. We demonstrate that the magnitude of spin-orbit coupling is directly correlated with the degree of deviation from planarity.
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