Facile Preparation of α‐Cyano‐α,ω‐Diaryloligovinylenes: A New Class of Color‐Tunable Solid Emitters

An efficient Knoevenagel condensation reaction was used to construct a series of α‐cyano‐α,ω‐diaryloligovinylenes, which show prominent fluorescence emission in the solid state. On investigating the effect of conjugation length on fluorescent properties, we found that the diene structure showed superior solid‐state luminescence. Furthermore, the emission color could be adjusted by introducing donor or acceptor functional groups at the terminal aryl groups. Full‐color emission in the visible region can be achieved by adding different functional groups to the α‐cyano‐α,ω‐diaryldivinylene moiety. The structure–property relationships were elucidated and some observations such as the substitution position effects were discussed. These compounds have potential applications as full‐color solid emissive candidates in material science and their simple structures allow them to be easily modified resulting in further interesting properties.