MCD spectroscopy and TD-DFT calculations of a naphthalene-ring-bridged coplanar binuclear phthalocyanine dimer

Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopy and TD-DFT calculations are used to analyze the electronic structure and optical properties of an alkyl-substituted naphthalene-ring-bridged coplanar binuclear phthalocyanine dimer. An analysis of the MCD spectrum of the naphthalene-ring-bridged dimer relative to those of benzene-bridged compounds reported previously, demonstrates that there is a significantly weaker interaction between the two phthalocyanine rings. TD-DFT results obtained using the B3LYP functional with 6–31G basis sets were found to be problematic. Closer agreement with the experimental data is obtained when the CAM-B3LYP functional is used instead. The naphthalene-ring-bridged compound is found to be unsuitable for use as a photosensitizer for the formation of singlet oxygen, because the ΦT values are negligible.