Organic
materials exhibiting mechano-fluorochromic behavior in
their gel state are extremely rare in the literature. Similarly, examples
of mechano-fluorochromic organic materials with crystal-to-crystal
phase transitions have not been reported until date. Herein, we achieved
these two remarkable properties in phenothiazine derivatives S1 and S2[(E)-N′-((10-ethyl-10H-phenothiazin-3-yl)methylene)-3,4,5-tris(hexadecyloxy)benzohydrazide
and (E)-N′-((10-ethyl-10H-phenothiazin-3-yl)methylene)isonicotinohydrazide)], where S1 formed mechano-luminescent xerogel and S2 exhibited
the rare feature of crystal-to-crystal phase transition with mechano-luminescence
behavior. Study of the photophysical properties of S1 and S2 indicated the suppression of twisted intramolecular
charge transfer (TICT) upon self-assembly, leading to blue-shifted
emission from S1 and S2. While both S1 and S2 exhibited the propensity to aggregate
and disclosed the aggregation induced emission (AIE) behavior in a
binary solvent (THF/H2O) mixture, only S1 resulted
in a robust gel, which was further utilized for developing a superhydrophobic
surface with a contact angle of 157.56°. Upon mechanical grinding,
both pristine sample and xerogel of S1 showed an emission
color change from light green (505 nm) to yellowish green (530 nm),
whereas S2 exhibited an emission color change from cyan
blue (480 nm) to green (535 nm). Furthermore, both fluorophores exhibited
red-shifted emission under application of increased pressure. Mechanistic
studies indicated that grinding resulted in crystal to amorphous phase
transition in S1, whereas grinding in S2 demonstrated the rare feature of crystal-to-crystal phase transition.
The mechano-fluorochromic (MFC) natures of S1 and S2 were supported by single point energy calculations using
density functional theory (DFT).