Many kinds of fluorescent polypyridine compounds including bpy and dppz derivatives are described in understanding the recent current of fluorescent materials having photofuctionality. Those polypyridine compounds have the photofunctionality such as the fluorescence recognition and/or photo-switching. Furthermore, those compounds are applicated for the construction of long ranged photoinduced electron/energy transfer system. Various fluorescent π-conjugation systems connected by amide or imine bond as well as the simple fluorescent bpy derivatives are introduced in this review paper.
INTRODUCTIONFluorescent artificial receptors are attracting considerable interest in various stages in sensory, biochemical, medical, photoelectronic, and other fields.1 These receptors are composed of the host unit (binding site) and the signaling unit (fluorescent site), and communication between the two units is essential for guest specific response. Though various molecular designs have been proposed in order to develop efficient fluorescent receptors, 2 most of those receptors are designed by introducing molecular recognition site(s) into the known fluorophores.Polypyridine compounds are useful molecular units as a binding site. They have multiple interaction sites, and the number of pyridine units is adjustable. 2,2'-Bipyridine (bpy) is most studied among them due to its excellent property as a bidentate ligand and as a hydrogen bond acceptor.3 Moreover, rational receptor design using more than one bpy can reach selective and strong interaction with guests.