Synthesis and optical properties of 1-ethyl-indol-3-yl-substituted aza-BODIPY dyes at the 1,7-positions

New aza-BODIPYs with significant bathochromic shifts in their UV–vis absorption spectrum were synthesized by the installation of 1-ethyl-indol-3-yl moieties at the 1,7-positions of the aza-BODIPY core bearing 4-substituted phenyl or thien-2-yl groups at the 3,5-positions. The compounds described herein show strong NIR absorptions up to 779 nm, and emissions up to 805 nm in chloroform solution, and present large molar extinction coefficients . The absorption and emission bands of aza–BODIPYs were significantly red-shifted, by ca 100 nm, relative to the 3,5-dianisyl-1,7-diphenyl aza-BODIPY. TD-DFT calculations indicate an effective electronic conjugation between the aza-BODIPY core and the substituents. Absorption of the studied aza-BODIPY derivatives corresponds to a charge transfer from donor substituents toward the boron-centered core. Moreover, computational results show that all the compounds present HOMO–LUMO band gap values that are in the organic semiconductor range.