Uniform treatment of solute-solvent dispersion in the ground and excited electronic states of the solute based on a solvation model with state-specific polarizability

We present a new kind of treatment of the solute-solvent dispersion contribution to the free energy of solvation using a solvation model with state-specific polarizability (SMSSP). To evaluate the solute-solvent dispersion contribution, the SMSSP model utilizes only two descriptors, namely, the spherically averaged dipole polarizability of the solute molecule (either in its ground or excited electronic state) and the refractive index of the solvent. The model was parametrized over 643 ground-state solvation free energy data for 231 solutes in 14 nonpolar, non-hydrogen-bonding solvents. We show that the SMSSP model is applicable to solutes in both the ground and the excited electronic state. For example, in comparison to available experimental data, the model yields qualitatively accurate predictions of the solvatochromic shifts for a number of systems where solute-solvent dispersion is the dominant contributor to the shift.