Prof. Daniel Gryko together with collaborators from Poland (Institute of Physics PAS, University of Warsaw and Silesian University of Technology) and US (University of California, Riverside) discovered how to make nitroaromatics fluoresce. The new strategy relies on linking electron-deficient dipyrrolonaphthyridinedione core with nitro groups through biaryl linkage. This strategy of preventing the known processes that compete with photoemission leads to the emergence of unprecedented alternative mechanisms for fluorescence quenching, involving transitions to dark nπ* singlet states and aborted photochemistry (concept by Prof. Andrzej Sobolewski).
Dr Bartłomiej Sadowski is the first author of this paper published in Chemical Science:
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/sc/d1sc03670j
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