How a Small Structural Difference Can Turn Optical Properties of pi-Extended Coumarins Upside Down: The Role of Non-Innocent Saturated Rings

The fluorescence properties of two new families of heterocycles possessing either a seven- or five-membered ring attached at the core molecule are entirely different in solution and in the solid state. Crystallization has the effect of inhibiting non-radiative excited-state deactivation pathways, operative in solution for the seven-membered ring compounds, thus leading to significant fluorescence efficiency in the solid state, with quantum yields ranging from 0.10 to 0.36. Conversely, the five-membered ring derivatives, which display notable emission properties in solution, are almost non-emissive in the crystalline state, characterized by a long-range pi-stacked arrangement. When embedded in polymeric films, both series show fluorescence features similar to the solution case, with remarkable fluorescence quantum yields ranging from 0.09 to 0.41. According to quantum chemical calculations, 3H-chromeno[3,4-c]pyridine-4,5-diones show the specific mechanism of fluorescence quenching. The derivatives bearing the seven-membered ring undergo, in solution, a significant structural deformation in the excited state, resulting in a large decrease of the energy gap between S-1 and S-0 and hence to a substantial contribution of the internal conversion in the relaxation process. The fluorescence quenching of the five-membered ring derivatives is in turn related to the intermolecular interaction between adjacent molecules prevailing to a greater extent in the crystal lattice.