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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Thomas PenfoldORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Strategies for tuning the optical properties of organic chromophores generally focus on shifting the edges of the spectrum: this might be red-shifting the longest absorbance band to improve solar absorbance, or blue-shifting of the highest energy emission band towards deep blue emission. In contrast, strategies to enhance molar absorptivity and control excited state rate constants are less obvious, with intermolecular excitons such as J-aggregates providing arguably the most powerful approach. Here, a homologous series of π-extended triptycenes is presented which reveal opportunities to control both aspects. These molecules have electronic spectra consisting of two distinct regimes, a low energy intramolecular charge transfer and a mid-spectral progression which has characteristics similar to that of a J-aggregate in several respects. This reveals that a homoconjugated framework can be utilised rationally to separate and independently control distinct regions of the molecules electronic structure, here leading to controllably amplified mid-spectrum absorbance intensities and high fluorescence quantum yields.
Author(s): Warrington S, Gonev HI, Nichol GS, Dodd E, Coles SJ, Penfold TJ, Etherington MK, Clarke TM, Wright IA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Chemical Science
Year: 2026
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 08/06/2026
Acceptance date: 05/06/2026
Date deposited: 17/06/2026
ISSN (print): 2041-6520
ISSN (electronic): 2041-6539
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
URL: https://doi.org/10.1039/D6SC01073C
DOI: 10.1039/D6SC01073C
Data Access Statement: CCDC 2495341 (0F) and 2502203 (1F) contain the supplementary crystallographic data for this paper.111a,b The data required to form the conclusions of this study are present in the paper itself, or are included in the supplementary information (SI). Additional data can be provided by the corresponding author(s) upon request. Supplementary information is available. See DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sc01073c.
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