A photoluminiscent Ge-containing conjugated macrocycle

The selective synthesis of a photoluminiscent macrocycle containing germanium atoms in conjugation with two aromatic segments has been accomplished by ruthenium-based olefin metathesis. The macrocycle shows blue emission with 40% quantum efficiency. The optical properties are interpreted with the help of theoretical DFT calculations using B3LYP/6-31G** and B3LYP/Lanl2dz with a remarkable match between the measured and the calculated absorption characteristics.