Novel fluorescent liquid crystals: synthesis, mesomorphism and fluorescence of triphenylene-Bodipy derivatives based on 1,3,5-triazine core

ABSTRACT

The novel triphenylene-Bodipy derivatives 6 and 7 based on 1,3,5-triazine core were designed and synthesised by introducing BODIPY unit and triphenylene units sequentially onto cyanuric chloride. The Bodipy derivative 6 with one triphenylene unit was a nematic liquid crystal but the derivative 7 with two triphenylene units was a hexagonal columnar liquid crystal. The investigation on photophysical properties suggested that both of them exhibited excellent fluorescence with high fluorescence quantum yields and the Stokes shifts were larger than their Bodipy precursors. This research presented a good example of design and synthesis of columnar Bodipy liquid crystal with high fluorescence and large Stokes shift.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Triphenylene
• BODIPY
• triazine
• fluorecence
• mesophase

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No: 21406036]; Fujian Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 2017J01571] were greatly acknowledged.