Fluorescent triphenyl substituted maleimide derivatives: Synthesis, spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations

In this paper we describe a semi-empirical quantum method for predicting the wavelength of maximum fluorescence excitation and emission for several known and new maleimide derivatives. All new maleimides, containing a N-Benzyl attachment, were successfully synthesised via a tandem Suzuki reaction with aryl boronic acids containing either an electron donating, electron withdrawing functional groups. Absorption and emission spectra calculated using the semi-empirical AM1 method with excited state ZINDO calculations proved more reliable than either Hartree-Fock Configuration interaction or time dependent density functional methods. Calculated absorption and emission wavelengths were compared with 26 experimental spectra from known or newly synthesised maleimides and found to have provide reasonable predictions, with an average deviation of less the 6% for absorption maxima and less than 4% for emission peaks. The described method provides a strong benchmark for the accuracy that can be expected from theoretical predictions of fluorescence spectra.