A novel all-organic chemical and electrochemical fluorescent switch

A three-component molecular system capable of switching fluorescence ON and OFF was designed and synthesized. The new redox-activator optical signal generator is an ‘all-organic’ system composed of 2-chloronaphthoquinone connected to 5-dimethylaminonaphthalene via a non-conjugating piperazine spacer. Both chemo- and electrophotoswitching capabilities were demonstrated.