Perylene bisimide dimer aggregates: fundamental insights into self-assembly by NMR and UV/Vis spectroscopy

A novel perylene bisimide (PBI) dye bearing one solubilizing dialkoxybenzyl and one bulky 2,5-di-tert-butylphenyl substituent was synthesized and its aggregation behavior was analyzed by NMR and UV/Vis spectroscopy in various chloroform/methylcyclohexane (MCH) solvent mixtures. In the presence of no less than 10 vol % chloroform, exclusive self-assembly of this PBI dye into π-stacked dimers was unambiguously confirmed by means of both concentration-dependent (1) H NMR and UV/Vis spectroscopic experiments. Based on ROESY NMR, a well-defined π-stacked dimer structure was determined and further corroborated by molecular modeling studies. By varying the solvent composition of chloroform and MCH, the solvent effects on the Gibbs free energy of PBI dimerization were elucidated and showed a pronounced nonlinearity between lower and higher MCH contents. This observation could be related to a further growth process of dimers into larger aggregates that occurs in the absence of chloroform, which is required to solvate the aromatic π surfaces. With the help of a single-crystal structure analysis for a related PBI dye, a structural model could be derived for the extended aggregates that are still composed of defined π-π-stacked PBI dimer entities.