title: Facile Access to Twisted Intramolecular Charge-Transfer Fluorogens Bearing Highly Pretwisted Donor-Acceptor Systems Together with Readily Fine-Tuned Charge-Transfer Characters.
abstract: Twisted intramolecular charge-transfer (TICT) fluorogens bearing highly pretwisted geometries and readily-fine-tuned charge-transfer characters are quite promising sensor and electroluminescence (EL) materials. In this study, by using 4-aryloxy-1,8-naphthalimide derivatives as the molecular framework, it is demonstrated for the first time that a CO bond could serve as the central bond to construct new TICT D-A systems. Photophysical and quantum chemical studies confirm that rotation around central CO bonds is responsible for the formation of a stable TICT state in these compounds. More importantly, owing to the structural adjustability of the aryl moiety and the strong steric interactions between the naphthalimide and the aryl ring systems, these compounds can display readily-fine-tuned TICT characters, hence exhibiting an adjustable solvent polarity threshold for aggregation-induced emission (AIE) activity, and could be AIE-active even in less-polar toluene and nonpolar cyclohexane. Furthermore, these compounds could possess highly-pretwisted ground-state geometries, hence could show good EL performance. The findings reveal a facile but effective molecular constructive strategy for versatile, high-performance optoelectronic TICT compounds.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yanju
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shiqi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Optoelectronic Information, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China College of Chemistry, Chengdu, 610054, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yige
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaogen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Minghui
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Optoelectronic Information, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China College of Chemistry, Chengdu, 610054, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Junsheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Analytical and Testing Center, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Daibing
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhiyun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lu
keywords: aggregation-induced emission; electroluminescence; fine-tuning; pretwisted ground-state geometry; twisted intramolecular charge transfer