Fluorescent difluoroboron-curcumin analogs: An investigation of the electronic structures and photophysical properties

•Four difluoroboron curcumin analogs have been successfully studied by using DFT and TD-DFT.•Photophysical properties were computed and correlated with reported data.•Their NLO properties were computed and compared with urea.

A comprehensive approach based on the density functional theory method was used to elicit the molecular and photophysical properties of four difluoroboron analogs of curcumin. The ground state geometry optimization, vertical absorption and the first excited state optimization were carried out using the B3LYP/6-31G(d) method. The geometry of the molecules remains planar both in the ground and excited states. There is a good correlation between the observed absorption (maximum deviation of 8%) and emission wavelength (maximum deviation of 22%) with the computed values. Different polarizability parameters were computed and compared with urea. The values obtained for the difluoroboron dyes are larger than those of urea, suggesting considerable charge transfer characteristics of the first excited state. This is further supported by the significant difference in the dipole moment. The outcome of this work should be useful towards the industrial applications of these curcumin-based dyes.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide