Self‐Assembled α‐Cyanostilbenes for Advanced Functional Materials

Abstract

In the specific context of condensed media, the significant and increasing recent interest in the α-cyanostilbene (CS) motif [ArCHC(CN)Ar] is relevant. These compounds have shown remarkable optical features in addition to interesting electrical properties, and hence they are recognized as very suitable and versatile options for the development of functional materials. This progress report is focused on current and future use of CS structures and molecular assemblies with the aim of exploring and developing for the next generations of functional materials. A critical selection of illustrative materials that contain the CS motif, including relevant subfamilies such as the dicyanodistyrylbenzene and 2,3,3-triphenylacrylonitrile shows how, driven by the self-assembly of CS blocks, a variety of properties, effects, and possibilities for practical applications can be offered to the scientific community, through different rational routes for the elaboration of advanced materials. A survey is provided on the research efforts directed toward promoting the self-assembly of the solid state (polycrystalline solids, thin films, and single crystals), liquid crystals, nanostructures, and gels with multistimuli responsiveness, and applications for sensors, organic light-emitting diodes, organic field effect transistors, organic lasers, solar cells, or bioimaging purposes.

Star‐Shaped Cyanostilbene‐Based Dyads: Synthesis, Self‐Assembly and Photophysical Properties

“…530 nm were observed when the fw was higher than 40% (Figure S11). The weak luminescence of these CS dyads in solution could be attributed to the steric effects of the cyano groups on the stilbene which caused the nonplanarity of the CS moieties with a low rotational energy barrier . Thus, most of the reported CS compounds exhibit low luminescence quantum yields in liquid solution due to the torsionally induced deactivation process which lead a high nonradiative decay rates .…”

Molecular Design, Circularly Polarized Luminescence, and Helical Self‐Assembly of Chiral Aggregation‐Induced Emission Molecules

“…Over the past few years, the construction of luminescent supramolecular architectures with well‐defined sizes and shapes has attracted great interest in the fields of optoelectronics, nanophotonics, biological imaging, and sensing . The self‐assembly of π‐conjugated organic molecules is a simple and efficient way for the fabrication of the micro/nanostructures . The driving forces in the process are non‐covalent interactions including π–π stacking, hydrogen‐bonding, electrostatic interactions, van der Waals forces, dipole–dipole attraction, and hydrophobic effects.…”

“…[1][2][3] The self-assembly of p-conjugated organic molecules is a simple and efficient way for the fabrication of the micro/nanostructures. [4][5][6][7] The driving forcesi nt he process are non-covalent interactions including p-p stacking, hydrogen-bonding, electrostatic interactions, van der Waals forces, dipole-dipole attraction, and hydrophobic effects.Aparamountc hallenge of this approach is the rational design of ideal luminescentb uilding blocks. Most "conventional" organic luminophorse mit intensively in dilute solutions, butb ecome weaker or even quenched in the aggregated state, such as fluorescein (Figure 1a).…”

Photoswitchable Fluorescent Liquid Crystal Nanoparticles and Their Inkjet‐Printed Patterns for Information Encrypting and Anti‐Counterfeiting

“…As is well known that, dicyanodistyrylbenzene-based compounds are very ideal choice for multifunctional materials due to their remarkable optical and electrical properties that derive from their designable chemical structures. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] The unique AIEE effect makes them have an extensive application in condense states. In addition, a photochromic dithienylethene molecular Liquid crystal nanoparticles (LCNPs) with desirable multifunctionality are catching increasing attention due to their promising applications in various fields.…”