Tuning the Emission Properties of 2,1,3-Benzothiadiazoles via Regioselective Substitution

The 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTD) unit is a prominent building block commonly used in various research areas such as optoelectronics and bioimaging. Despite its great versatility, the development of strategies to elaborate BTD has been largely neglected, including exploring its reactivity and understanding how regioselective functionalization can be used to tune the fluorescence emission. Previous focus has primarily been on C4- or C4,C7-substitutions.  Here, a series of unsymmetrical mono - and disubstituted BTDs was synthesized and characterized for their photophysical properties.  The reaction scope includes all six possible substituent patterns on the BTD benzoid ring (C4-, C5-, C4,C5-, C4,C6-, C4,C7- and C5,C6-substitution), which comprise arrangements that previously been synthetically challenging to access. By introducing a methoxy and/or a phenyl group we demonstrate that the emissive behavior of BTD derivatives strongly depends on the position of the substituent(s).  We show that regioselective substitution on BTD can engender long-lived fluorescence and circumvent strong fluorescence quenching in polar protic solvents, which is a limitation of many previously described BTD derivatives.

Isomerization of Benzothiadiazole Yields a Promising Polymer Donor and Organic Solar Cells with Efficiency of 19.0

The exploration of high-performance and low-cost wide-bandgap polymer donors remains critical to achieve high-efficiency nonfullerene organic solar cells (OSCs) beyond current thresholds. Herein, the 1,2,3-benzothiadiazole (iBT), which is an isomer of 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BT), is used to design wide-bandgap polymer donor PiBT. The PiBT-based solar cells reach efficiency of 19.0%, which is one of the highest efficiencies in binary OSCs. Systemic studies show that isomerization of BT to iBT can finely regulate the polymers' photoelectric properties including i) increasing the extinction coefficient and photon harvest, ii) downshifting the highest occupied molecular orbital energy levels, iii) improving the coplanarity of polymer backbones, iv) offering good thermodynamic miscibility with acceptors. Consequently, the PiBT:Y6 bulk heterojunction (BHJ) device simultaneously reaches advantageous nanoscale morphology, efficient exciton generation and dissociation, fast charge transportation, and suppressed charge recombination, leading to larger VOC of 0.87 V, higher JSC of 28.2 mA cm-2 , greater fill factor of 77.3%, and thus higher efficiency of 19.0%, while the analog-PBT-based OSCs reach efficiency of only 12.9%. Moreover, the key intermediate iBT can be easily afforded from industry chemicals via two-step procedure. Overall, this contribution highlights that iBT is a promising motif for designing high-performance polymer donors.

Biosensors Based on Graphene Oxide Functionalized with Benzothiadiazole-Derived Ligands for the Detection of Cholesterol

In this work, imidazole- or imidazolium-based benzothiadiazole ligands functionalized on graphene oxide combined with cholesterol oxidase constitute efficient, robust, and easy-to-handle materials with high biosensing activity for the detection of cholesterol by colorimetric methods. The presence of lanthanum(III) supported on graphene oxide as a possible coordinating site for the benzothiadiazole ligands was also evaluated, and its bioactivity was compared to that of the analogous material without the rare-earth metal. Our results demonstrated that graphene oxide functionalized with 4,7-bis-(imidazol-1-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole exhibited the best performance for the quantification of total cholesterol with a sensitivity of 0.0649 (with lanthanum) and 0.0618 au dL mg^-1 (without lanthanum). In addition, these materials presented a better percentage of immobilization (>90%), recovered activity, resistance to storage, and detection range than materials containing 4,7-[1-carboxymethyl-(imidazol-3-ium)]-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole chloride. Therefore, the combination of GO-BTD (Im/Ac)/ChOx (with or without lanthanum) affords efficient biosensors for the colorimetric detection of cholesterol.

A Zn(II)-Based Sql Type 2D Coordination Polymer as a Highly Sensitive and Selective Turn-On Fluorescent Probe for Al3

A luminescent coordination polymer with the overall formula {[Zn(tr2btd)(bpdc)]∙DMF}n (where tr2btd = 4,7-di(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole; bpdc = 4,4'-biphenyldicarboxylate) was synthesized and characterized by single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric, infrared spectroscopy, and elemental analyses. Luminescent properties of the obtained compound were studied in detail both in the solid state and as a suspension in N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMA). It was found that {[Zn(tr2btd)(bpdc)]∙DMF}n exhibits bright turquoise luminescence with excellent quantum efficiency and demonstrates turn-on fluorescence enhancement effect upon soaking in DMA Al3+ solution. Fluorescence titration experiments were carried out and the detection limit for Al3+ ions was calculated to be 120 nM, which is among the lowest reported values for similar materials. Moreover, compound demonstrated excellent selectivity and reusability, and the mechanism of the response is discussed. These results indicate that {[Zn(tr2btd)(bpdc)]∙DMF}n is a promising probe for sensitive fluorescent Al3+ detection.

Chalcogen Bonding "2S-2N Squares" versus Competing Interactions: Exploring the Recognition Properties of Sulfur

Chalcogen bonding (CB) is the focus of increased attention for its applications in medicinal chemistry, materials science, and crystal engineering. However, the origin of sulfur's recognition properties remains controversial, and experimental evidence for supporting theories is still emerging. Here, a comprehensive evaluation of sulfur CB interactions is presented by investigating 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole X-ray crystallographic structures gathered from the Cambridge Structure Database (CSD), Protein Data Bank (PDB), and own laboratory findings. Through the systematic analysis of substituent effects on a subset library of over thirty benzothiadiazole derivatives, the competing interactions have been categorized into four main classes, namely 2S-2N CB square, halogen bonding (XB), S⋅⋅⋅S, and hydrogen-bonding (HB). A geometric model is employed to characterize the 2S-2N CB square motifs and discuss the role of electrostatic, dipole, and orbital contributions toward the interaction.