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However, the excited-state fate after proton transfer is not exclusively governed by radiative decay from a stabilized keto tautomer, and nonradiative relaxation may also play a decisive role. In this work, the excited-state relaxation mechanism of 2-(4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)phenol (DIP) was investigated using multireference electronic structure calculations combined with nonadiabatic dynamics simulations. SA-CASSCF\/MS-CASPT2 calculations reveal the presence of a low-energy S1S0 conical intersection in the keto configuration that provides an efficient nonradiative decay channel. The ESIPT process proceeds through a modest proton-transfer barrier of 7.47 kcal\u00b7mol\u22121, after which the system is directed toward the conical intersection region on the excited-state potential energy surface. Surface-hopping dynamics simulations at the OM2\/MRCI level further demonstrate that the relaxation process bifurcates into pathways yielding either enol or keto ground-state products. These results indicate that the excited-state dynamics are governed not only by proton transfer but also by strong nonadiabatic coupling associated with the conical intersection. This work reveals that the excited-state fate of ESIPT systems is strongly governed by conical intersection-mediated nonradiative decay following proton transfer.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.jpca.6c05123","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,1]],"date-time":"2026-09-01T09:00:20Z","timestamp":1788253220000},"page":"7187-7196","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Conical Intersection-Mediated Nonradiative Decay in\nan ESIPT-Active Imidazole Derivative"],"prefix":"10.1021","volume":"130","author":[{"given":"Jiahui","family":"Wu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Institute of Technology , , ,","place":["Beijing, China, 100081"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5702-7867","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Chuanbiao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Heze University , , , ,","place":["Heze, Shandong, China, 274015"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dan","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Institute of Technology , , ,","place":["Beijing, China, 100081"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7942-8605","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Zhiyuan","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Institute of Technology , , ,","place":["Beijing, China, 100081"]},{"name":"Beijing Institute of Technology , , , ,","place":["Tangshan, Hebei, China, 063611"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"316","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"2026091008072116900_cit1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/ajoc.202400572","article-title":"Recent Advances in\nSmart Sensing Based on Excited-State Intramolecular Proton-Transfer\n(ESIPT)-Inspired Emitters","volume":"14","author":"Li","year":"2025","journal-title":"Asian J. 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