Abstract

A series of tunable fluorophores combining the pyrene nucleus and the 2,2′-bipyridine ligand unit are presented. They were designed to display luminescence tuning upon metal ion complexation. The effects are strongly affected by the nature of the covalent bridge linking the two subunits. The intensity, the color, but also the lifetime of the luminescence emission are features that can be finely modulated depending on the molecular structure, the nature of the solvent and the metal cation. This approach provides accesss to a new class of photosensitive receptors for applications in chemosensing, optoelectronic, or solar energy storage and conversion.