Phosphaquinolinone–NBD Hybrid Fluorophore Development and Photophysical Characterization

ABSTRACT

Small molecule organic fluorophores have provided utility across several fields. Existing dyes have been used to make responsive materials, detect diseases and quantify analytes in various media and in many other applications. Although there are excellent molecules for many of these applications, most of the existing fluorophore moieties have limitations such as small Stokes shifts, low brightness, or poor stability. To address this challenge, researchers have developed several hybrid dyes, where two or more fluorescent molecules are covalently bonded together. The dyes augment each other's photophysical properties, often leading to application‐specific improvements. This study presents the synthesis and characterization of the first phosphaquinolinone (PN)–nitrobenzoxadiazole (NBD) hybrid fluorophore. Through the combination of these two groups, the resultant molecule exhibits excellent Stokes shifts and shows promise as a building block towards more functionalized PN‐containing hybrid fluorophores.