Photophysical, crystallographic, and electrochemical characterization of symmetric and unsymmetric self-assembled conjugated thiopheno azomethines.

Novel conjugated azomethines consisting uniquely of thiophene units are presented. The highly conjugated compounds were synthesized by simple condensation of a stable diamino thiophene (2) with its complementary thiophene aldehydes. These interesting nitrogen-containing thiophene units exhibit variable reactivity leading to controlled aldehyde addition. Because of the different amino reactivity, a one-pot synthesis of unsymmetric and symmetric conjugated azomethines with varying number of thiophene units was possible by judicious choice of solvent and careful control of reagent stoichiometry. The resulting covalent conjugated connections are both reductively and hydrolytically resistant. The thermodynamically E isomer is formed uniquely for all of the azomethines synthesized, which is confirmed by crystallographic studies. These also demonstrated that the azomethine bonds and the thiophene units are highly planar and linear. The fluorescence and phosphorescence of the thiopheno azomethines measured are similar to those of thiophene analogues currently used in functional devices, but with the advantage of low triplet formation and band-gaps as low as 1.9 eV. The time-resolved and steady-state temperature-dependent photophysics revealed the thiopheno azomethines do not populate extensively their triplet manifold by intersystem crossing. Rather, their excited-state energy is dissipated predominantly by nonradiative means of internal conversion. Quasi-reversible electrochemical radical cation formation of the thiophene units was found. These compounds further undergo electrochemically induced oxidative cross-coupling, resulting in conjugated products that also exhibit reversible radical cation formation.