Structure-Directed Functional Properties of Phenothiazine Brominated Dyes: Morphology and Photophysical and Electrochemical Properties

A series of nine dyes based on electron-donating phenothiazine core functionalized with various carbonyl containing electron-withdrawing moieties as primary end group and with or without bromine as a second heavy end group were designed and synthesized to generate variable supramolecular architectures with distinct thermotropic, photophysical, and electrochemical properties. The supramolecular architecture of the obtained dyes was studied in detail by single crystal X-ray diffraction and polarized light microscopy, while optoelectronic properties were investigated by UV-vis and photoluminescence spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry measurements. The phenothiazine dyes emit light from UV to orange domain, depending on the electron-withdrawing substituent, with great quantum yield reaching up to 71% and high color purity. The introduction of the bromine as a second substituent produced a nearly 2-fold increase of the quantum yield, compared with their counterparts. It was settled that this major benefit of the bromine on the improvement of the quantum yield happened because by its presence some molecular orbital interactions were generated. An interesting and challenging achievement was evidenced in the case of the direct connection of the formyl group to the phenothiazine ring when an unexpected planarization of the dye, unknown up to now in the literature, with drastic consequences on the photophysical and electrochemical behavior was attained. It was concluded that there is a close relationship between the nature of the building blocks of the phenothiazine dyes and their ability to promote favorable properties for different optoelectronic applications.