Photophysical investigation of cyano-substituted terrylenediimide derivatives

Koen Kennes, Yannick Baeten, Tom André Jos Vosch, Wouter Sempels, Stoyan Yordanov, Sebastian Stappert, Long Chen, Klaus Müllen, Johan Hofkens, Mark Van der Auweraer, Eduard Fron

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Two new terrylenediimide (TDI) chromophores with cyano substituents in the bay and core area (BCN-TDI and OCN-TDI, respectively) have been characterized by a wide range of techniques, and their applicability for stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy has been tested. By cyano substitution an increase of the fluorescence quantum yield and a decrease of the nonradiative rate constant is achieved and attributed to a reduced charge-transfer character of the excited state due to a lower electron density of the TDI core. For BCN-TDI, the substitution in the bay area induces a strong torsional twist in the molecule which, similar to phenoxy bay-perylenediimide (PDI), has a strong effect on the fluorescence lifetime but appears to prevent the aggregation that is observed for OCN-TDI. The single-molecule photobleaching stability of BCN- and OCN-TDI is lower than that of a reference TDI without cyano substitution (C7-TDI), although less so for OCN-TDI. The photophysical properties of the excited singlet state are only slightly influenced by the cyano groups. The observed intense stimulated emission, the pump-dump-probe experiments, and STED single-molecule imaging indicate that STED experiments with the cyano-substituted TDIs are possible. However, because of aggregation and more efficient photobleaching, the performance of BCN- and OCN-TDI is worse than that of the reference compound without cyano groups (C7-TDI). Bay-substituted TDIs are less suitable for STED microscopy. (Figure Presented).

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry Part B: Condensed Matter, Materials, Surfaces, Interfaces & Biophysical
Volume118
Issue number50
Pages (from-to)14662-14674
Number of pages13
ISSN1520-6106
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Dec 2014

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