Molecular, vibrational and electronic structure of 4-bromo-2-halogenobenzaldehydes: Halogen and solvent effects

The halogen and solvent effects on the structure of 4-bromo-2-halogenobenzaldehydes [C7H4BrXO; X = F (BFB), Cl (BCB) or Br (BBB)] were investigated by the density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) methods. The B3LYP functional and HF and MP2 levels of theory were used with the 6-311+ G(3df,p) or aug-cc-pVDZ basis sets. Computations were focused on the cis and trans conformers of the investigated compounds in the gas phase and solutions of 18 different polar or non-polar organic solvents. The computed frequencies of the C=O stretching vibration of the compounds were correlated with some empirical solvent parameters such as the Kirkwood-Bauer-Magat (KBM) equation, solvent acceptor number (AN), Swain parameters and linear solvation energy relationships (LSERs). The electronic properties of the compounds were also examined. The present work explores the effects of the medium and halogen on the conformation, geometrical parameters, dipole moment, nu(C=O) vibration, UV data, frontier orbitals and density-of-states diagram of the compounds. The findings of this research can be useful for studies on benzaldehydes.