Validating a Density Functional Theory Approach for Predicting the Redox Potentials Associated with Charge Carriers and Excitons in Polymeric Photocatalysts

We compare, for a range of conjugated polymers relevant to water-splitting photocatalysis, the predictions for the redox potentials associated with charge carriers and excitons by a total-energy ΔDFT approach to those measured experimentally. For solid-state potentials, of the different classes of potentials available experimentally for conjugated polymers, the class measured under conditions which are the most similar to those during water splitting, we find a good fit between the ionization potentials predicted using ΔB3LYP and those measured experimentally using photoemission spectroscopy (PES). We also observe a reasonable fit to the more limited data sets of excited-state ionization potentials, obtained from two-photon PES, and electron affinities, measured by inverse PES, respectively. Through a comparison of solid-state potentials with gas phase and solution potentials for a range of oligomers, we demonstrate how the quality of the fit to experimental solid-state data is probably the result of benign error cancellation. We discuss that the good fit for solid-state potentials in vacuum suggests that a similar accuracy can be expected for calculations on solid-state polymers interfaced with water. We also analyze the quality of approximating the ΔB3LYP potentials by orbital energies. Finally, we discuss what a comparison between experimental and predicted potentials teaches us about conjugated polymers as photocatalysts, focusing specifically on the large exciton-binding energy in these systems and the mechanism of free charge carrier generation.