Tetrahedron Letters
1,6- and 1,7-regioisomers of dinitro- and diamino-substituted
perylene bisimides: synthesis, photophysical and electrochemical
properties
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Hsing-Yang Tsai, Che-Wei Chang, Kew-Yu Chen
Department of Chemical Engineering, Feng Chia University, 40724 Taichung, Taiwan, ROC
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
1,6- and 1,7-regioisomers of dinitro- (1,6-3 and 1,7-3) and diamino-substituted perylene bisimides (1,6-1
and 1,7-1) were synthesized. The regioisomers 1,6-3 and 1,7-3 were successfully separated by high per-
formance liquid chromatography and characterized by 500 MHz 1H NMR spectroscopy. Subsequently, the
reduction of 1,6-3 and 1,7-3 afforded the corresponding diaminoperylene bisimides 1,6-1 and 1,7-1,
respectively. This is the first time 1,6-regioisomers of dinitro- and diamino-substituted perylene bisi-
mides are obtained in pure form. The photophysical and electrochemical properties of 1,6-3 and 1,7-3
were found to be almost the same. However, the regioisomers 1,6-1 and 1,7-1 exhibit significant differ-
ences in their optical characteristics. The absorption spectrum of 1,6-1 covers a larger part of the visible
region compared to that of 1,7-1. Upon excitation, 1,6-1 also show larger dipole moment change than that
of 1,7-1. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations are reported on these dyes in order to
rationalize their electronic structure and absorption spectra.
Received 30 September 2013
Revised 2 December 2013
Accepted 10 December 2013
Available online 19 December 2013
Keywords:
1,6-Dinitroperylene bisimide
1,6-Diaminoperylene bisimide
Intramolecular charge transfer
Lippert–Mataga equation
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Perylene bisimides (PBIs) and related derivatives possess excel-
lent thermal, photochemical and photophysical stabilities with
high extinction coefficients.1 Their use has been explored for
potential applications in molecular electronic and optical devices,
such as photovoltaic cells,2 light-emitting diodes,3 organic field-ef-
fect transistors (OFETs),4 dye lasers,5 optical power limiters,6 LCD
color filters,7 light-harvesting arrays,8 electrophotographic
devices,9 photochromic materials,10 logic gates,11 and molecular
wires.12 They have also been utilized as building blocks to con-
struct supramolecular or artificial photosynthetic systems.13 In re-
cent years, more and more novel perylene bisimide derivatives
with either electron-donating or electron-withdrawing groups
were reported in the literature, such as (a) piperidinyl-substituted
PBIs,14 (b) pyrrolidinyl-substituted PBIs,15 (c) alkylamino-substi-
tuted PBIs,16 (d) amino-substituted PBIs,17 (e) alkoxy-substituted
PBIs,18 (f) hydroxy-substituted PBIs,19 (g) aryl-substituted PBIs,20
(h) ferrocenyl-substituted PBIs,21 (i) alkyl-substituted PBIs,22 (j)
perfluoroalkyl-substituted PBIs,23 (k) boryl-substituted PBIs,24 (l)
cyano-substituted PBIs,25 (m) nitro-substituted PBIs,26 etc. To date,
a general method for introducing substituents onto the PBIs’ core is
bromination or chlorination of perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic
dianhydride (6). Nucleophilic substitutions and metal-catalyzed
cross-coupling reactions can then be executed and yield a regioiso-
meric mixture of 1,6- and 1,7-disubstituted PBIs. The most widely
reported molecules made from the above reaction were 1,7-disub-
stituted PBIs,27 rather than 1,6-disubstituted PBIs.14a Recently,
Dubey et al. have synthesized, separated, and characterized
1,6- and 1,7-regioisomers of diphenoxy and dipyrrolidinyl substi-
tuted PBIs.28 The results have shown that 1,6-dipyrrolidinylperyl-
ene bisimide covers a larger portion of the visible region (450–
750 nm) compared to that of 1,7-dipyrrolidinylperylene bisimide.
Therefore, the 1,6-regioisomer may be of particular interest for
organic photovoltaic applications. To expand the scope of the
PBI-based dyes available for designing systems for OFETs and
photovoltaic cells, the present research reports the synthesis,
separation, characterization, photophysical and electrochemical
properties of 1,6- and 1,7-regioisomers of dinitro- and diamino-
substituted PBIs.
Scheme 1 shows the chemical structures and synthetic routes of
nitro-substituted (3 and 4) and amino-substituted PBIs (1 and 2).
The synthesis starts from an imidization of perylene-3,4,9,10-tetra-
carboxylic dianhydride (6) by reacting with cyclohexylamine. The
nitration of perylene bisimide can then be achieved by the reaction
of 5 with cerium (IV) ammonium nitrate (CAN) and HNO3 under
ambient temperature. Both mono- and di-substituted nitroperyl-
ene bisimides (4 and 3) were obtained by controlling the reaction
time,29 and the regioisomeric 1,6- and 1,7-dinitroperylene
bisimides (1,6-3 and 1,7-3) were successfully separated by high
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0040-4039/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.