Synthesis and mechanochromic investigations of new cyanopyridone derivatives

In the present work, four new cyanopyridone derivatives bearing terminal long chain alkyloxy substituents were designed and synthesized. All the synthesized target compounds were characterized by IR, NMR and Mass spectrometry. Further, their optical properties were examined in their solution state. The optical study showed that all the compounds can exhibit blue emissive behavior in their solution state and yellow fluorescence in the solid state. Furthermore, the long-tailed target compound showed intriguing fluorescence properties under the applied mechanochromic stimuli. Finally, a simple method of grinding-fuming process confirmed the morphological changes occurring in the studied compound which further resulted in the enhancement of its emission property.