Estimation of electron absorption spectra and lifetime of the two lowest singlet excited states of pyrimidine nucleobases and their derivatives

•The excited states of pyrimidine bases are some of their derivatives addressed.•Absorption electronic spectral lines were determined using several DFT functional and post-HF techniques.•Lifetimes of all the molecules were evaluated using OM2/MNDO methods within hopping dynamics for a swarm of semiclassical MD trajectories.•Lifetime of the first excited state is estimated as:τ2 = 0.45, 0.27, and 0.13 ps for Cyt, Thy, and Ura, respectively.•Mssssuch longer time is necessary for the remaining derivatives.