There is growing interest in creating solids that are responsive to various stimuli. Herein we report the first molecular-level mechanistic picture of the thermochromic polymorphic transition in a series of MAN-NI dyad crystals that turn from orange to yellow upon heating with minimal changes to the microscopic morphology following the transition. Detailed structural analyses revealed that the dyads assemble to create an alternating bilayer type structure, with horizontal alternating alkyl and stacked aromatic layers in both the orange and yellow forms. The observed dynamic behavior in the solid state moves as a yellow wavefront through the orange crystal. The overall process is critically dependent on a complex interplay between the layered structure of the starting crystal, the thermodynamics of the two differently colored forms, and similar densities of the two polymorphs. Upon heating, the orange form alkyl chain layers become disordered, allowing for some lateral diffusion of dyads within their own layer. Moving to either adjacent stack in the same layer allows a dyad to exchange a head-to-head stacking geometry (orange) for a head-to-tail stacking geometry (yellow). This transition is unique in that it involves a nucleation and growth mechanism that converts to a faster cooperative wavefront mechanism during the transition. The fastest moving of the wavefronts have an approximately 38° angle with respect to the long axis of the crystal, corresponding to a nonconventional C–H···O hydrogen bond network of dyad molecules in adjacent stacks that enables a transition with cooperative character to proceed within layers of orange crystals. The orange-to-yellow transition is triggered at a temperature that is very close to the temperature at which the orange and yellow forms exchange as the more stable, while being lower than the melting temperature of the original orange, or final yellow, solids.
In this work, we report the stabilization of the reduced states of pyromellitic diimide by charge-balancing the imide radical anions with cationic pyridinium groups attached to the aromatic core. This structural modification is confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Characterization by (spectro)electrochemical experiments and computations reveal that the addition of cationic groups to an already electron-deficient ring system results in up to +0.57 V shifts in reduction potentials, largely as a consequence of charge screening and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital-lowering effects. This formal charge-balancing approach to stabilizing the reduced states of electron-deficient pyromellitic diimides will facilitate their incorporation into spin-based optoelectronic materials and devices.
We have been investigating monoalkoxynaphthalene–naphthalimide (MAN–NI) donor–acceptor dyads that undergo a unique and dramatic orange-to-yellow thermochromic transition in the solid state. This study reports a new series of these stimuli-responsive solids, based on dyads with symmetric and relatively long alkyl side chains, as well as asymmetric derivatives. The length of the alkyl side chains influenced the structures, properties, and dynamic behavior of the resulting solids. All of the symmetric alkyl side chain derivatives can crystallize with identical packing (allowing for alkyl chain length differences) in a lasagna-like fashion with alternating alkyl and stacked aromatic layers. The fully extended alkyl side chains are aligned in an interdigitated, “cork and bottle” fashion. The aromatic layers feature head-to-head stacking geometries of the aromatic dyad cores. The crystalline solids derived from each of these derivatives undergo dramatic thermochromic orange-to-yellow transition in the solid state. Crystal structures were obtained for three of the four asymmetric dyad derivatives. In each case, layered structures were observed, although the mismatch in alkyl side chain lengths results in a unique hybrid alkyl/aromatic layer. Two of the asymmetric derivatives exhibit almost identical head-to-head dyad core stacking geometries, while one exhibits a head-to-tail dyad core stacking geometry. Of the four asymmetric dyads studied, only two asymmetric derivatives with the longer alkyl side chains exhibit dynamic solid-state behavior. Overall, our results demonstrate the relatively general nature of the thermochromic orange-to-yellow color-changing mechanism of the MAN–NI dyads and verify the link between the alkyl side chain interactions and this interesting stimuli-responsive behavior in the solid-state.
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