Allison L Brazeau, K. Yuan, Soo-Byung Ko
Dec 4, 2017
Citations
0
Influential Citations
11
Citations
Journal
ACS Omega
Abstract
A blue fluorescent p-dimesitylboryl-phenyl-functionalized 1,3-bisbenzimidazolyl benzene molecule (1) has been synthesized in high yield by Stille coupling of bisbenzimidazolyl bromobenzene with p-BMes2-SnBu3-benzene. Methylation of 1 led to the formation of the bisbenzimidazolium salt (2). The utility of both 1 and 2 in sensing CN– and halide (F–, Cl–, Br–, and I–) was examined, and it was found that only the small fluoride and cyanide anions were able to bind to the boron atom with binding constants in the range of 2.9 × 104 to 5 × 105 M–1. Computational studies provided insight into the photophysical properties of the molecules and verified that a charge-transfer process is quenched in these “turn-off” molecular sensors.