QUANTUM CHEMICAL STUDIES OF CHARGE-TRANSFER COMPLEXES OF INDOLES

Abstract
The capacity of a series of indoles to form charge-transfer complexes was not exactly correlated with the energies of the highest occupied molecular orbitals, but was instead correlated with electrophilic superdelocalizability of the C-3 atom. These results support the idea that this atom is involved in a localized charge-transfer complex, and this possibility is discussed. Some biological implications of this work are also suggested.