Photochemical synthesis of naphthacene and its derivatives for irreversible photo-responsive fluorescent molecules

Highly fluorescent naphthacene derivatives and their photoconvertible precursors were synthesized for irreversibly photo-responsive fluorescent molecules. The fluorescence quantum yields (Φf) of the precursors were less than 0.02, and the precursors can be converted to the highly fluorescent naphthacene derivatives (Φf = 0.67-0.70) quantitatively by photo-irradiation.