Mechanisms for Solvatochromic Shifts of Free-Base Porphine Studied with Polarizable Continuum Models and Explicit Solute–Solvent Interactions

Solvatochromic shifts of free-base porphine in the Q-band and B-band were studied using the polarizable continuum model (PCM) and explicit solvent molecules employing time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) and the symmetry-adapted cluster-configuration interaction (SAC-CI) method. The state-specific (SS) and linear-response (LR) methods were examined in the PCM calculations. These models involve different types of solute-solvent interactions. The LR PCM and explicit solvation models reproduced the experimentally observed trends of the solvatochromic shifts, while the SS PCM failed to reproduce the experimental findings. The origin of the solvatochromic shifts of free-base porphine was dispersive interactions between the solute and solvent. Specific solute-solvent interactions would be important for a decrease of the splitting width between Q-bands. Based on the Casimir-Polder formula and a decomposition analysis, it was found that the dominant part of the solute-solvent interactions can be considered using independent particle approximations.