Dehydrobenzoannulene-based donor–acceptor architectures†
Abstract
Herein, utilizing [15]dehydrobenzoannulene as the electron acceptor, two homologous donor–acceptor architectures (CDBAa and CDBAb) were synthesized and characterized. Subsequently, their interesting photophysical properties were investigated. In their fluorescence spectra, CDBAa and CDBAb exhibited typical locally excited state emissions in a low-polarity solvent, while locally excited state and intramolecular charge transfer state dual emissions were observed in a high-polarity solvent. Moreover, when analyzing intramolecular charge transfer emission, CDBAb with extended π-conjugation displayed obvious red-shifted fluorescence. Furthermore, with the aid of their extraordinary donor–acceptor structure, both architectures exhibited strong and stable electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emissions in the visible-light region. In order to evaluate the practicality of their luminescence performance, CDBAb with stronger ECL emission was selected as the ECL material to construct a dopamine sensor. This work provides new insights for the future development of high-performance molecular light-emitting devices.