Due to the ease of tuning its redox potential, the cobalt-based redox couple has been extensively applied for highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with extraordinarily high photovoltages. However, a cobalt electrolyte needs particular structural changes in the organic dye components to obtain such high photovoltages. To achieve high device performance, specific requirements in the molecular tailoring of organic sensitizers still need to be met. Besides the need for large electron donors, studies of the auxiliary acceptor segment of donor–acceptor–π-acceptor (D-A-π-A) organic sensitizers are still rare in molecular optimization in the context of cobalt electrolytes. In this work, two novel organic D-A-π-A-type sensitizers (IQ13 and IQ17) have been developed and exploited in cobalt- and iodine-based redox electrolyte DSSCs, specifically to provide insight into the effect of π-bridge modification in different electrolytes. The investigation has been focused on the additional electron-withdrawing acceptor capability with grafted long alkoxy chains. Optoelectronic transient measurements have indicated that IQ17 containing a pyrido[3,4-b]pyrazine moiety bearing long alkoxyphenyl chains is more suitable for application in cobalt-based DSSCs.

Using one ray of light to encode another ray of light is highly desirable because information in optical format can be directly transferred from one beam to another without converting back to the electronic format. One key medium to accomplish such an amazing task is photoswitchable molecules. Using bis(dithiazole)ethene that can be photoswitched between its ring-open and ring-closed states quantitatively with excellent fatigue resistance and high thermal stability, it is shown that quantitative photoreversibility allowed the photoswitching light to control other light travelling through the photoswitchable medium, a phenomenon of transferring information encoded in one light ray to others, thus imparting photo-optical modulation on the orthogonal light beam.

Endowing both solvent independency and excellent thermal bistability, the benzobis(thiadiazole)-bridged diarylethene system provides an efficient approach to realize extremely high photocyclization quantum yields (Φ_o-c, up to 90.6 %) by both separating completely pure anti-parallel conformer and suppressing intramolecular charge transfer (ICT).

Using one ray of light to encode another ray of light is highly desirable because information in optical format can be directly transferred from one beam to another without converting back to the electronic format. One key medium to accomplish such an amazing task is photoswitchable molecules. Using bis(dithiazole)ethene that can be photoswitched between its ring-open and ring-closed states quantitatively with excellent fatigue resistance and high thermal stability, it is shown that quantitative photoreversibility allowed the photoswitching light to control other light travelling through the photoswitchable medium, a phenomenon of transferring information encoded in one light ray to others, thus imparting photo-optical modulation on the orthogonal light beam.

Endowing both solvent independency and excellent thermal bistability, the benzobis(thiadiazole)-bridged diarylethene system provides an efficient approach to realize extremely high photocyclization quantum yields (Φ_o-c, up to 90.6 %) by both separating completely pure anti-parallel conformer and suppressing intramolecular charge transfer (ICT).

Three photochromic compounds—2-butyl-5,6-bis[5-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2-methylthiophen-3-yl]-1 H-benzo[de]isoquinoline-1,3(2 H)-dione (BTE-NA), 4,5-bis[5-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2-methylthiophen-3-yl]benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (BTA), and BTTA, which contain naphthalimide, benzothiadiazole, and benzobisthiadiazole as six-membered ethene bridges with different aromaticities—were systematically studied in solution, sol–gel, and single-crystal states. They exhibit typical photochromic performance with considerably high cyclization quantum yields. BTE-NA, BTA, and BTTA form a typical donor–π–acceptor (D–π–A) system with significant intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) between HOMO and LUMO upon excitation, thus realizing the fluorescence modulation by both photochromism and solvatochromism. The three ethene bridges with different degrees of aromaticity can provide a systematic comparison of the thermal stability evolution for their corresponding closed forms (c-BTE-NA, c-BTA, and c-BTTA). c-BTE-NA shows first-order decay in various solvents from cyclohexane to acetonitrile. c-BTA only shows first-order decay in polar solvents such as chloroform, whereas it is stable in nonpolar solvents like toluene. In contrast, the less aromatic property of BTTA gives rise to its unprecedented thermal stability in various solvents even at elevated temperatures in toluene (328 K). Moreover, the small energy barrier between the parallel and antiparallel conformers allows the full conversion from BTTA to c-BTTA. In well-ordered crystal states, all three compounds adopt a parallel conformation. Interestingly, BTTA forms a twin crystal of asymmetric nature with interactions between the electron-rich oxygen atom of the methoxy group and the carbon atom of the electron-deficient benzobisthiadiazole moiety. This work contributes to the understanding of aromaticity-controlled thermal stability of photochromic systems based on a six-membered ring as an ethene bridge, and a broadening of the novel building blocks for photochromic bisthienylethene systems.

Four organic D–A–π-A-featured sensitizers (TQ1, TQ2, IQ1, and IQ2) have been studied for high-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We employed an indoline or a triphenylamine unit as the donor, cyanoacetic acid as the acceptor/anchor, and a thiophene moiety as the conjugation bridge. Additionally, an electron-withdrawing quinoxaline unit was incorporated between the donor and the π-conjugation unit. These sensitizers show an additional absorption band covering the broad visible range in solution. The contribution from the incorporated quinoxaline was investigated theoretically by using DFT and time-dependent DFT. The incorporated low-band-gap quinoxaline unit as an auxiliary acceptor has several merits, such as decreasing the band gap, optimizing the energy levels, and realizing a facile structural modification on several positions in the quinoxaline unit. As demonstrated, the observed additional absorption band is favorable to the photon-to-electron conversion because it corresponds to the efficient electron transitions to the LUMO orbital. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) Bode plots reveal that the replacement of a methoxy group with an octyloxy group can increase the injection electron lifetime by a factor of 2.4. IQ2 and TQ2 can perform well without any co-adsorbent, successfully suppress the charge recombination from TiO₂ conduction band to I₃⁻ in the electrolyte, and enhance the electron lifetime, resulting in a decreased dark current and enhanced open circuit voltage (V_oc) values. By using a liquid electrolyte, DSSCs based on dye IQ2 exhibited a broad incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) action spectrum and high efficiency (η=8.50 %) with a short circuit current density (J_sc) of 15.65 mA cm⁻², a V_oc value of 776 mV, a fill factor (FF) of 0.70 under AM 1.5 illumination (100 mW cm⁻²). Moreover, the overall efficiency remained at 97 % of the initial value after 1000 h of visible-light soaking.

A new photochromic bisthienylethene system (BTENAFc) is reported in which the ferrocene unit (Fc) is incorporated into a naphthalimide chromophore as the central ethene bridging unit. The incorporated Fc unit in the photochromic system of BTENAFc has several effects on optical properties, such as fluorescence-modulation through photoinduced electron transfer (PET), a decrease in the photochromic cyclization quantum yield, and a selective two-step oxidation process. The ability to drive ring-opening and ring-closing reactions with a secondary redox-modulation provides increased functionality to the photochromic system. Based on these meaningful photo- and redox-modulation properties, five unprecedented multi-addressable states (BTENAFc, BTENAFc⁺, c-BTENAFc, c-BTENAFc⁺, and BTE⁺NAFc⁺) and gated photochromism are successfully obtained within the unimolecular BTE platform, thus providing deeper insight into photochromic systems as multifunctional outputs.

Three tricarbocyanine dyes (IR-897, IR-877, and IR-925) with different thiourea substituents that function as dosimeter units through specific Hg²⁺-induced desulfurization have been demonstrated in a fast indicator paper for Hg²⁺ and MeHg⁺ ions. In comparison with available Hg²⁺-selective chemodosimeters, IR-897 and IR-877 show several advantages, such as convenient synthesis, very long wavelengths falling in the near-infrared (NIR) region (650–900 nm) with high molar extinction coefficients, a ratiometric response, and quite low disturbance with Ag⁺ and Cu²⁺ ions. They exhibit large redshifts, which result in a clear color change from deep blue to pea green that can be easily monitored by the naked eye for a convenient indicator paper. In emission spectra, they display a characteristic turn-off mode at 780 nm and turn-on mode at 830 nm with titration of Hg²⁺ ions. Remarkably, the signal/noise (S/N) ratio with other thiophilic metal ions (Ag⁺ and Cu²⁺) is greatly enhanced with ratiometric measurement of two channels: excitation spectra mode (I_810 nm/I_670 nm, monitored at 830 nm) and emission spectra mode (I_830 nm/I_780 nm, isosbestic absorption point at 730 nm as excitation). The distinct response is dependent upon the electron-donating effect of the thiourea substituents; that is, the stronger the electron-donating capability of the thiourea substituents, the faster the Hg²⁺-promoted cyclization. Additionally, experiments with living SW1116 cells show that these three tricarbocyanine dyes with low toxicity can exhibit special characteristics that are favorable for visualizing intracellular Hg²⁺ and MeHg⁺ ions in biological systems, including excellent membrane permeability, minimal interfering absorption and fluorescence from biological samples, low scattering, and deep penetration into tissues.

A conveniently synthesized photochromic compound, BTB-1, containing an unprecedented six-membered 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole unit as the center ethene bridge, possesses good photochromic performance, with a high cyclization quantum yield and moderate fatigue resistance in solution or an organogel system. The fluorescence of BTB-1 can be modulated by solvato- and photochromism. However, the analogue BTB-2, in which the dimethylthiophene substituents are relocated to the 5,6-positions of benzothiadiazole, does not show any detectable photochromism. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of six-membered bridge bisthienylethenes (BTEs) in which the photochromism can be controlled by the substitution position. The photochromism difference is elucidated by the analysis of resonance structure, the Woodward–Hoffmann rule, and theoretical calculations on the ground-state potential-energy surface. In a well-ordered single-crystal state, BTB-1 adopts a relatively rare parallel conformation, and forms an interesting two-dimensional structure due to the presence of multiple directional intermolecular interactions, including CH⋅⋅⋅N and CH⋅⋅⋅S hydrogen-bonding interactions, and π–π stacking interactions. This work contributes to several aspects for developing novel photochromic BTE systems with fluorescence modulation and performances controlled by substitution position in different states (solution, organogel, and single crystal).

Near-IR (NIR) emission can offer distinct advantages for both in vitro and in vivo biological applications. Two NIR fluorescent turn-on sensors N,N′-di-n-butyl-2-(N-{2-[bis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)amino]ethyl})-6-(N-piperidinyl)naphthalene-1,4,5,8-tetracarboxylic acid bisimide and N,N′-di- n-butyl-2-[N,N,N′-tri(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)amino]ethyl-6-(N-piperidinyl)naphthalene-1,4,5,8-tetracarboxylic acid bisimide (PND and PNT) for Zn²⁺ based on naphthalenediimide fluorophore are reported. Our strategy was to choose core-substituted naphthalenediimide (NDI) as a novel NIR fluorophore and N,N-di(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)ethane-1,2-diamine (DPEA) or N,N,N′-tri(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)ethane-1,2-diamine (TPEA) as the receptor, respectively, so as to improve the selectivity to Zn²⁺. In the case of PND, the negligible shift in absorption and emission spectra is strongly suggestive that the secondary nitrogen atom (directly connected to the NDI moiety, N¹) is little disturbed with Zn²⁺. The fluorescence enhancement of PND with Zn²⁺ titration is dominated with a typical photoinduced electron-transfer (PET) process. In contrast, the N¹ atom for PNT can participate in the coordination of Zn²⁺ ion, diminishing the electron delocalization of the NDI moiety and resulting in intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) disturbance. For PNT, the distinct blueshift in both absorbance and fluorescence is indicative of a combination of PET and ICT processes, which unexpectedly decreases the sensitivity to Zn²⁺. Due to the differential binding mode caused by the ligand effect, PND shows excellent selectivity to Zn²⁺ over other metal ions, with a larger fluorescent enhancement centered at 650 nm. Also both PND and PNT were successfully used to image intracellular Zn²⁺ ions in the living KB cells.