Synthetic Control of Photophysical Process and Circularly Polarized Luminescence of [5]Carbohelicene Derivatives Substituted by Maleimide Units

A series of [5]­carbohelicene derivatives substituted by electron-withdrawing maleimide and electron-donating methoxy, such as maleimide-substituted [5]­carbohelicene (HeliIm) and methoxy-substituted HeliIm (MeO-HeliIm), were newly designed and synthesized to examine the electrochemical properties, excited-state dynamic and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). First, electrochemical measurements and DFT calculations of [5]­carbohelicene derivatives were performed by comparing with the structural isomers: picene derivatives. Introduction of an electron-withdrawing maleimide group onto a [5]­carbohelicene core contributes to the stabilized LUMO state in HeliIm as compared to that of [5]­carbohelicene (Heli), whereas the energy level of HOMO state in MeO-HeliIm increases by introducing electron-donating methoxy (MeO) groups onto a HeliIm skeleton. The HOMO–LUMO gap of MeO-HeliIm is smaller than those of HeliIm and Heli, which is similar to the steady-state spectroscopic measurements. The absolute fluorescence quantum yield (Φ_FL) of HeliIm (0.37) largely increased as compared to [5]­carbohelicene, Heli (0.04), whereas Φ_FL of MeO-HeliIm (0.22) was slightly smaller than that of HeliIm. Theses photophysical processes including intersystem crossing are successfully explained by the kinetic discussions. Since [5]­carbohelicene derivatives show the chirality, measurements of circular dichroism (CD) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) were successfully performed. In particular, HeliIm and MeO-HeliIm have provide excellent circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) and the values of the anisotropy factor g_lum were estimated to be ∼2.4 × 10^–3 and ∼2.3 × 10^–3, relatively. This is the first observation of CPL in [5]­carbohelicene derivatives.