Metal Complexes of Phenanthroline-Based Polyphenylenes via “Phenblue”

Abstract

A novel family of phenanthroline-based compounds were synthesised via a [2+4] Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction between specifically designed cyclopentadienone based synthons that incorporate the already fused phenanthroline moiety 11b-Hydroxy-1,3-diphenyl-1,11b-dihydro-7,8-diaza cyclophenta[l]phenanthrene-2-one (1a) and 11b-Hydroxy-1,3-di(4-tert butylphenyl)-1,11b-dihydro-7,8-diaza-cyclophenta[l] phenanthrene-2-one (1b) and various di-substituted acetylenes. These systems have been found to display tuneable fluorescent capabilities, which make them promising material for application in optoelectronics as well showing excellent metal coordination potential.