Electrosynthesis of blue-light-emitting oligo(1-bromopyrene) with favorable solubility

Abstract

Bromo-group-substituted oligopyrene films were electrochemically synthesized by direct anodic oxidation of 1-bromopyrene (BrP) in boron trifluoride diethyl etherate (BFEE). The oxidation potential of BrP was measured to be approximately 0.52 V (vs. Ag/AgCl), which was much lower than that detected in a neutral electrolyte such as acetonitrile (1.2 V vs. Ag/AgCl) and CH 2 Cl 2 (1.25 V vs. Ag/AgCl). Oligo(1-bromopyrene) (OBrP) films showed good redox activity in both BFEE and concentrated sulfuric acid. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, 1 H NMR, and theoretical calculations showed that the electropolymerization of the BrP monomer mainly occurred at the C (3) , C (6) , and C (8) positions. As-formed OBrP was a typical blue light emitter with fluorescent quantum yields of 0.27, also emitted strong and bright blue photoluminescence at excitation of 365 nm UV light. Furthermore, the films were readily soluble in dimethyl sulfoxide, CH 2 Cl 2 , acetonitrile, and acetone. All these results indicate that the striking OBrP films have many potential applications in various fields, such as optoelectronic materials, DNA fluorescence probes, and electrochemical sensors.