A series of aromatric-amine-cored fluorescent emitters for amplified spontaneous laser emission and emission turn-on sensing

Abstract

In this paper, five boron dipyrromethene dyes were designed with aromatric-amine-cored structure. Their molecular structure and photophysical performance were discussed in detail in various solvents. It was found that these five dyes were highly fluorescent ones in toluene with emission quantum yield higher than 95%. Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) performance of these fluorescent dyes was then analyzed in toluene. Efficient and promising ASE spectra peaking at ~545 nm were observed for four of these fluorescent dyes with full width at half maximum value of ~5 nm and ASE efficiency up to 9%. It was confirmed that aromatric-amine-cored structure was positive to improve ASE performance. The reason for ASE missing in one of these fluorescent dyes was revealed as the vibrational relaxation of its N–H group. In solvent MeCN, however, this dye showed an interesting phenomenon, emission turn on effect towards Hg(II). Its sensing performance and sensing mechanism were discussed in detail as well. Good linear response and high selectivity were found for both colorimetric sensing and emission turn on sensing.