A highly soluble polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane end-capped perylenediimide dye

Abstract

A highly soluble perylenediimide (PDI) dye with unusual polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) molecules was synthesized by the reaction of an aminopropylisobutyl POSS (POSS-NH₂) and 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride in the presence of Zn(OAc)₂. This material exhibits good thermal stability and high fluorescence quantum yield (Φ_F = 1.0). Its fluorescence time profile displays biexponential decay, with fluorescence lifetimes of 9.27 ± 0.26 ns (79.7%) and 2.55 ± 0.03 ns (20.3%). Molecular modelling results show that the lengths of the molecular long-axis and short-axis are about 3.5 and 2.2 nm, respectively. The values of the HOMO, LUMO, ionization potential and electron affinity estimated from the electrochemical data are −6.05, −3.75, 6.45 and 4.16 eV, respectively.