Opto-electronic properties of low band gap fused-ring thieno[3,4-b]pyrazine analogues – A theoretical study

The structural, optical and ionic properties of thieno[3,4-b]pyrazine (TP) analogues have been studied using quantum chemical methods. The density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) methods were employed to optimise the ground- and excited-state geometries of TP analogues. Based on the ground- and excited-state geometries, the absorption and emission spectra have been calculated by using TD-DFT method with 6-311G(d,p) basis set. All the calculations were carried out in gas phase and in acetonitrile and chloroform medium. The solvent-phase calculations were performed using the polarisable continuum model (PCM). It has been observed that the effect of medium on the calculated absorption and emission spectra of these analogues is negligible. The calculated absorption and emission spectra are in good agreement with the available experimental results. This theoretical investigation shows that the fused-ring thieno[3,4-b]pyrazine analogues dibenzo[f,h]thieno[3,4-b]quinoxalines and thieno[3′,4′:5,6]pyrazino[2,3-f][1,10] phenanthroline have lower band gap than the thieno[3,4-b]pyrazine. Hence, these analogues can be used for the production of low band gap conjugated polymers.