7‐Aminoquinoline (7AQ) and various amino derivatives thereof (‐NHR) have been strategically designed and synthesized to study their excited‐state proton‐transfer (ESPT) properties. Due to the large separation between the proton donor ‐NHR and the acceptor ‐N‐ site, ESPT in 7AQ derivatives, if available, should proceed under protic solvent catalysis. ESPT is found to be influenced by the acidity of ‐NHR and the basicity of the proton‐acceptor ‐N‐ in the quinoline moiety. The latter is varied by the resonance effect at the quinoline ‐N‐ site induced by the ‐NHR substituent. For those 7AQ derivatives undergoing ESPT, increased quinoline basicity results in a faster rate of ESPT, implying that proton donation from methanol to the quinoline moiety may serve as a key step in the process. Our studies also indicate the existence of an equilibrium between cis and trans arrangements of ‐NHR in terms of its hydrogen‐bond (H‐bond) configuration with methanol, whereby only the cis‐H‐bonded form undergoes methanol‐assisted ESPT. With one exception, the interconversion between cis and trans configurations is much faster than the rate of ESPT, yielding amino‐type (normal form) and imine‐type (proton‐transfer tautomer) emissions with distinct relaxation dynamics.

Excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) and excimer formation are unimolecular and bimolecular reactions, respectively. The coupling between these two reactions has been rarely observed. Here we show the interplay between ESIPT and excimer formation in CF 3-HTTH (2,2′-(thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole-2,5-diyl)bis(4-(trifluoromethyl)phenol) solid crystal, resulting in the extensively broad multiple emissions spanning from 420 to 750 nm. Comprehensive structural, time-resolved spectroscopic, and two-photon microscopic studies of CF 3-HTTH in crystal lattice unveil the pre-equilibrium ESIPT between the normal (N*) and tautomer (T*) form, for which the slow population decay and well-ordered lattice packing facilitate excimeric (E*) formation, rendering N* (460 nm), T* (520 nm) and E* (600 nm) triple emissions. In contrast, the lower degree of packing on the solid surface prohibits excimer formation, showing only the ESIPT process. The correlation between luminescence properties and packing structure sheds light on the corresponding mechanochromic effect based on molecular solid architecture and provide new insight into the aggregationinduced properties.

The original PDF and HTML versions of this Article contained errors in Eqs. (1) and (2). In both equations the approximately equal to symbol displayed incorrectly as ».  This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

The excited-state solvent-catalysed proton transfer of PyrQs requires a relay of ≧3 methanol molecules, where the N(8) proton-accepting site is the rate-determining step for the intrinsic proton tunnelling kpt.