Highly emissive phenylene-expanded [5]radialene

Chem Commun (Camb). 2020 Apr 7;56(27):3911-3914. doi: 10.1039/d0cc00122h. Epub 2020 Mar 9.

Abstract

A pentagonal macrocycle (MC5-PER) with radialene topology was facilely synthesized through a selective one-pot Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction. The resulting product is endowed with a pentagonal architecture as revealed by its single crystal structure, which affords the smallest ring strain and the best conjugation. As tetraphenylethene subunits are embedded, MC5-PER is highly emissive in the solid state due to the aggregation-induced emission effect. Because of the flexible structure and preferable fibre-like self-assembly, the aggregate of MC5-PER displays interesting polymorphism-dependent emission and acts as a sensitive fluorescence sensor for explosives detection.