title: Synthesis, fluorescence, and two-photon absorption of a series of elongated rodlike and banana-shaped quadrupolar fluorophores: a comprehensive study of structure-property relationships.
abstract: An extensive series of push-push and pull-pull derivatives was prepared from the symmetrical functionalization of an ambivalent core with conjugated rods made from arylene-vinylene or arylene-ethynylene building blocks, bearing different acceptor or donor end-groups. Their absorption and photoluminescence, as well as their two-photon-absorption (TPA) properties in the near infrared (NIR) region, were systematically investigated to derive structure-property relationships and to lay the guidelines for both spectral tuning and amplification of molecular TPA in the target region. Whatever the nature of the core or of the connectors, push-push systems were found to be more efficient than pull-pull systems, and planarization of the core (fluorene versus biphenyl) always leads to an increase in the TPA cross sections. In contrast, increasing the conjugation length as well as replacement of a phenylene moiety by a thienylene moiety in the conjugated rods did not necessarily lead to increased TPA responses. The present study also demonstrated that the topology of the conjugated rods can dramatically influence the TPA properties. This is of particular interest in terms of molecular engineering for specific applications, as both TPA properties and photoluminescence characteristics can be considerably affected. Thus, it becomes possible to optimize the transparency/TPA and fluorescence/TPA efficiency trade-offs for optical limiting in the red-NIR region (700-900 nm) and for two-photon-excited fluorescence (TPEF) microscopy applications, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Synthèse et ElectroSynthèse Organiques (CNRS, UMR 6510), Institut de Chimie, Université de Rennes 1, Campus Scientifique de Beaulieu, Bât 10A, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France. olivier.mongin@univ-rennes1.fr
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mongin
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Porrès
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Charlot
authors.forename: Claudine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Katan
authors.forename: Mireille
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blanchard-Desce
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D001713:Biphenyl Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D005453:Fluorescence; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D010777:Photochemistry; D017785:Photons; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013876:Thiophenes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001713:Biphenyl Compounds; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D013876:Thiophenes