Tetrathiafulvalene-benzothiadiazoles as redox-tunable donor-acceptor systems: synthesis and photophysical study.

Electrochemical and photophysical analysis of new donor-acceptor systems 2 and 3, in which a benzothiadiazole (BTD) unit is covalently linked to a tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) core, have verified that the lowest excited state can be ascribed to an intramolecular-charge-transfer (ICT) π(TTF)→π*(benzothiadiazole) transition. Owing to better overlap of the HOMO and LUMO in the fused scaffold of compound 3, the intensity of the (1)ICT band is substantially higher compared to that in compound 2. The corresponding CT fluorescence is also observed in both cases. The radical cation TTF(+·) is easily observed through chemical and electrochemical oxidation by performing steady-state absorption experiments. Interestingly, compound 2 is photo-oxidized under aerobic conditions.