Natural aldehyde extraction and direct preparation of new blue light-emitting imidazo[1,5-a]pyridine fluorophores

Abstract

This work describes the extraction of natural aldehydes and the use of extracts to synthesise new fluorescent imidazo[1,5-a]pyridine derivatives. The characterisation of the extracted aldehydes by different techniques and the optical study of the fluorescent products allow the design of new compounds suitable for pharmaceutical, down-shifting, microscopy and electronic applications. The fluorophores are generated by an easy one-pot cyclisation reaction in mild conditions without catalyst and with only water as by-product.

Keywords:

• Imidazo[1,5-a]pyridine
• large Stokes’ shift
• UV absorption
• blue emitters
• fluorescence

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr M. Barbero and Dr A. Deagostino of the University of Turin for their valuable suggestions.