Perylene Diimide Based Fluorescent Sensors for Drug Simulant Detection: The Effect of Alkyl-Chain Branching on Film Morphology, Exciton Diffusion, Vapor Diffusion, and Sensing Response.

Luminescence-based sensing has been demonstrated to be a powerful method for rapid trace detection of chemical vapors (analytes). Analyte diffusion has been shown to be the critical factor for real-time luminescence-based detection of explosive analytes via photoinduced electron transfer in amorphous films of conjugated polymers and dendrimers. However, similar studies to determine the critical factors for sensing have not been performed on materials that employ photoinduced hole transfer (PHT) to detect low electron affinity analytes such as illicit drugs. Nor have such studies been performed on semicrystalline sensing films. We have developed a family of perylene diimide-based sensing materials capable of undergoing PHT with amine-group containing analytes. It was found that the choice of branched alkyl chain [1-hexylheptyl (), 2-hexyloctyl (), or 2,2-dihexyloctyl ()] attached to the nitrogen atoms of the imide moiety strongly affected the solution-processed film morphology. and were found to contain crystalline phases, whereas was essentially amorphous. The degree of crystallinity strongly influenced exciton diffusion, with and exhibiting exciton diffusion coefficients that were 20× and 10× greater than the value of the amorphous . The degree of film crystallinity was also found to be critical when the films were applied to detect -methylphenethylamine (MPEA), a simulant of methamphetamine. While had the largest exciton diffusion coefficient [(1.0 ± 0.2) × 10 cm s] and analyte uptake (12.3 ± 1.8 ng) it showed the smallest quenching efficiency (2.6% ng). In contrast, , which sorbed the least analyte (6.1 ± 0.4 ng) of the three compounds, had the largest quenching efficiency (7.1% ng) due to its molecular packing and hence exciton diffusion coefficient [(4.5 ± 1.4) × 10 cm s] not being affected by sorption of the analyte. These results show that when applying fluorescent films in practical detection scenarios there is a potential trade-off between a high exciton diffusion constant and analyte diffusion for semicrystalline sensing materials and that a high exciton diffusion coefficient in an as-cast film does not necessarily translate into a more efficient fluorescent quenching. The results also show that sensing materials that form semicrystalline films, whose packing is not disrupted by analyte diffusion, provide a route for overcoming these effects and achieving high sensitivity.