Coupled π-conjugated chromophores: Squaraine dye dimers as two connected pendulums

Intense absorption ability in the near infrared (NIR) region is mandatory for many technologies and applications. The design thereof is however quite complex since only a few dye classes show these properties. Polymeric squaraine dyes have them however they are mostly hardly soluble. Herein four dimeric soluble and easy to prepare squaraine dye dimers are reported with absorption maxima between 679 and 805 nm. The synthesis, characterisation, the determination of the physicochemical properties and the in silico study of the calculated molecular geometry, the molecular orbitals, and the calculated total charge density surface were compared. The coupling of the two chromophores is concluded as a matter of the distance in-between, the pi-electron system of the bridge, the spatial orientation thereof, and the spatial orientation of the electronic transition moment. The closer the two chromophores were and the less out-of-plane elements the bridge has, the smaller the optical band gap is. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.