Tandem High-Pressure Crystallography-Optical Spectroscopy Unpacks Noncovalent Interactions of Piezochromic Fluorescent Molecular Rotors

To develop luminescent molecular materials with predictable and stimuli-responsive emission, it is necessary to correlate changes in their geometries, packing structures, and noncovalent interactions with the associated changes in their optical properties. Here, we demonstrate that high-pressure single-crystal X-ray diffraction can be combined with high-pressure UV-visible absorption and fluorescence emission spectroscopies to elucidate how subtle changes in structure influence optical outputs. A piezochromic aggregation-induced emitter, sym-heptaphenylcycloheptatriene (Ph7C7H), displays bathochromic shifts in its absorption and emission spectra at high pressure. Parallel X-ray measurements identify the pressure-induced changes in specific phenyl-phenyl interactions responsible for the piezochromism. Pairs of phenyl rings from neighboring molecules approach the geometry of a stable benzene dimer, while conformational changes alter intramolecular phenyl-phenyl interactions correlated with a relaxed excited state. This tandem crystallographic and spectroscopic analysis provides insights into how subtle structural changes relate to the photophysical properties of Ph7C7H and could be applied to a library of similar compounds to provide general structure-property relationships in fluorescent organic molecules with rotor-like geometries.

Energetic and Topological Supramolecular Study and Nucleation Proposal of Halogenated Aryl Amides

A supramolecular study of 12 halogenated aryl amides (F, Cl, Br, I) in the ortho, meta, or para positions was realized. From mono crystal X-ray diffraction data and theoretical calculations...

Hydrogen bonding vs. stacking interaction in the crystals of the simplest coumarin derivatives: a study from the energetic viewpoint

Hydrogen bonded and stacked dimers have very close interaction energies in the crystals of the simplest coumarin derivatives according to the data of the crystal structure analysis based on the comparison of pairwise interaction energies.