Purely organic materials showing solid state room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) are receiving an ever growing interest due to their low toxicity, cost and environmental load compared to their organometallic counterparts.

Solid-state luminescent materials with long lifetimes are the subject of ever-growing interest from both a scientific and a technological point of view. However, when dealing with organic compounds, the achievement of highly efficient materials is limited by aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) phenomena on one side and by ultrafast deactivation of the excited states on the other. Here, we report on a simple organic molecule, namely, cyclic triimidazole (CHN), 1, showing crystallization-induced emissive (CIE) behavior and, in particular, ultralong phosphorescence due to strong coupling in H-aggregated molecules. Our experimental data reveal that luminescence lifetimes up to 1 s, which are several orders of magnitude longer than those of conventional organic fluorophores, can be realized under ambient conditions, thus expanding the class of organic materials for phosphorescence applications.

Halogen bonding is arguably the least exploited among the many non-covalent interactions used in dictating molecular self-assembly. However, its directionality renders it unique compared to ubiquitous hydrogen bonding. Here, the role of this directionality in controlling the performance of light-responsive supramolecular polymers is highlighted. In particular, it is shown that light-induced surface patterning, a unique phenomenon occurring in azobenzene-containing polymers, is more efficient in halogen-bonded polymer–azobenzene complexes than in the analogous hydrogen-bonded complexes. A systematic study is performed on a series of azo dyes containing different halogen or hydrogen bonding donor moieties, complexed to poly(4-vinylpyridine) backbone. Through single-atom substitution of the bond-donor, control of both the strength and the nature of the noncovalent interaction between the azobenzene units and the polymer backbone is achieved. Importantly, such substitution does not significantly alter the electronic properties of the azobenzene units, hence providing us with unique tools in studying the structure–performance relationships in the light-induced surface deformation process. The results represent the first demonstration of light-responsive halogen-bonded polymer systems and also highlight the remarkable potential of halogen bonding in fundamental studies of photoresponsive azobenzene-containing polymers

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Halogen bond is an important non-covalent interaction which is receiving a growing attention in the study of protein-ligand complexes. Many drugs are halogenated molecules and it has been recently shown that many halogenated ligands establish halogen bonds with biomolecules. As the halogen bond nature is due to an anisotropy of the electrostatic potential around halogen atoms, it is not possible to use traditional force fields based on a set of atom-centred charges to study halogen bonds in biomolecules. We show that the introduction of pseudo-atoms on halogens permits us to correctly describe the anisotropy of the electrostatic potential and to perform molecular dynamics simulations on complexes of proteins with halogenated ligands that reproduce experimental values. The results are compared with crystallographic data and with hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics calculations.

Halogen bonding, a noncovalent interaction possessing several unique features compared to the more familiar hydrogen bonding, is emerging as a powerful tool in functional materials design. Herein, we unambiguously show that one of these characteristic features, namely high directionality, renders halogen bonding the interaction of choice when developing azobenzene-containing supramolecular polymers for light-induced surface patterning. The study is conducted by using an extensive library of azobenzene molecules that differ only in terms of the bond-donor unit. We introduce a new tetrafluorophenol-containing azobenzene photoswitch capable of forming strong hydrogen bonds, and show that an iodoethynyl-containing azobenzene comes out on top of the supramolecular hierarchy to provide unprecedented photoinduced surface patterning efficiency. Specifically, the iodoethynyl motif seems highly promising in future development of polymeric optical and photoactive materials driven by halogen bonding

The performance of solid luminogens depends on both their inherent electronic properties and their packing status. Intermolecular interactions have been exploited to achieve persistent room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) from organic molecules. However, the design of organic materials with bright RTP and the rationalization of the role of interchromophoric electronic coupling remain challenging tasks. Cyclic triimidazole has been shown to be a promising scaffold for such purposes owing to its crystallization-induced room-temperature ultralong phosphorescence (RTUP), which has been associated with H-aggregation. Herein, we report three triimidazole derivatives as significant examples of multifaceted emission. In particular, dual fluorescence, RTUP, and phosphorescence from the molecular and supramolecular units were observed. H-aggregation is responsible for the red RTUP, and Br substituents favor yellow molecular phosphorescence while halogen-bonded Br⋅⋅⋅Br tetrameric units are involved in the blue-green phosphorescence.

The new cobalt (II) phosphine complex CoCl2(P i PrPh2)2 was synthesized by reacting CoCl2 with isopropyldiphenylphosphine in ethyl alcohol as solvent. The molecular structure of the complex was determined by the X-ray diffraction method. CoCl2(P i PrPh2)2 was then used in combination with methylaluminoxane for the polymerization of 1,3-butadiene:  it was found to be highly active and stereospecific for the preparation of 1,2 syndiotactic polybutadiene. The same system was also able to polymerize substituted butadienes giving highly stereoregular 1,2 polymers from E-1,3-pentadiene, 1,3-hexadiene, and 3-methyl-1,3-pentadiene. Some of these polymers are completely new and were never prepared before.