Design and synthesis of core and peripherally functionalized with 1,8-naphthalimide units fluorescent PAMAM dendron as light harvesting antenna

This paper reports on the design, synthesis and spectral characteristics of a novel PAMAM dendron (7), core and peripherally functionalized with 1,8-naphthalimide fluorophores. The novel compound 7 was configured as light harvesting antenna where the system surface is functionalized with “donor” dyes (blue emitting 1,8-naphthalimides) that are capable of absorbing light and efficiently transferring the energy to a single “acceptor” dye (yellow-green emitting 1,8-naphthalimide) in the focal point of the dendron. The overlap between the emission of the donor and the absorbance of the acceptor was more than 95%. As a result of the energy transfer, the blue emission intensity of the periphery in the donor–acceptor system was decreased with 93%, while the yellow-green core fluorescence enhancement (λex = 360 nm) of the system was more than 26 times with respect to the fluorescence intensity of the comparative yellow-green emitting 1,8-naphthalimide. This indicates efficient energy transfer between the donor and acceptor dye fragments and that the novel compound 7 would be able to act as a highly efficient light harvesting antenna.