A series of β-diketone derivatives bearing tetraphenylene (TPE) moieties were synthesized and characterized. Their photophysical properties were investigated systematically via spectroscopic and theoretical methods. All compounds exhibit broad absorption bands between 300 and 450 nm, which are assigned to the 1π-π* transition of the conjugated system mixed intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) transitions. Meanwhile, the emission of these compounds in solution at room temperature (λ em = 458 ~ 509 nm) can be attributed to the 1π,π*/1ICT state. Introduction of freely rotatable TPE to conventional β-diketone luminophors quenches their light emissions in the solutions, but endows these molecules with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics in the condensed phase due to the restriction of intramolecular rotation. The spectroscopic studies and theoretical calculations indicate that the photophysical properties of these β-diketone derivatives can be tuned by the appended substituents, which would be useful for rational design of AIE compounds with high solid state luminescence performance. Furthermore, these AIE-active compounds exhibited distinct piezofluorochromic properties and switched reversibly upon grinding-fuming. Their photophysical properties have been investigated with the aim to provide a basis for elucidating the structure-property correlations and developing new multi-stimuli responsive luminescent materials.
Keywords: Aggregation induced emission; Light-emitting materials; Mechanochromic luminescence; Optical property; Synthesis; β-diketone.