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Quantum-chemical calculations of ground and excited states for membrane fluorescent probe 4-dimethylaminochalcone (DMAC) in vacuum were performed. Optimized geometries and dipole moments for lowest-lying singlet and triplet states were obtained. The nature of these electronic transitions and the relaxation path in the excited states were determined; changes in geometry and charge distribution were assessed. It was shown that in vacuum the lowest existed level is of (n, π*) nature, and the closest to it is the level of (π, π*) nature; the energy gap between them is narrow. This led to an effective (1)(π, π*) →(1)(n, π*) relaxation. After photoexcitation the molecule undergoes significant transformations, including changes in bond orders, pyramidalization angle of the dimethylamino group, and planarity of the molecule. Its dipole moment rises from 5.5 Debye in the ground state to 17.1 Debye in the (1)(π, π*) state, and then falls to 2 Debye in the (1)(n, π*) state. The excited (1)(n, π*) state is a short living state; it has a high probability of intersystem crossing into the (3)(π, π*) triplet state. This relaxation path explains the low quantum yield of DMAC fluorescence in non-polar media. It is possible that (3)(π, π*) is responsible for observed DMAC phosphorescence.

Ground state RHF/6 311G(d,p) and density functional B3LYP/6 311G(d,p) quantum chemical calculations of 4 dimethylaminochalcone (DMAC), a sensitive fluorescent probe, were carried out for vacuum and for solvents of different polarity. The effect of the medium was included by the SCRF method in the framework of the polarization continuum model. The DMAC fragment comprising the aniline and propenone groups has a nearly planar conforma tion. The phenyl group can lie in the same plane or rotate by an angle within the limits of ±20°w ith a low barrier at 293 K. The results of calculations were confirmed by the data of X ray study, according to which the phenyl group in the crystal is rotated by 20°. Calculations with allowance for solvation effects predict charge transfer from the dimethylamino group to the oxygen atom; the higher the medium polarity, the larger the degree of charge transfer (atomic charge of oxygen increases by 0.07 e in acetone). The calculated dipole moment of the DMAC molecule increases from 5.2 D (vacuum) to 5.9 D (heptane) and 6.9 D (acetone), which is in agreement with spectroscopic data. The energy of the DMAC-environment interaction was calculated. Due to large dipole moment of the DMAC molecule, the electrostatic component of this energy strongly depends on the environment polarity, which can be related to redistribu tion of the probe between the aqueous phase and cells and lipid structures of lipoproteins. The electronic absorption spectra of DMAC in solvents of different polarity were calculated; differences between the calculated and experimentally measured values are at most 15 nm.

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