Study on the structure–property relationship in a series of novel BF2 chelates with multicolor fluorescence

•A series of novel BF2 complexes with multicolor fluorescence have been synthesized.•These complexes are thoroughly characterized by 1H, 13C, 11B, 19F NMR and MS.•Experimental data are achieved via the optical and electrochemical measurements.•A correlation between structure–property has been established on the detailed data.•Density functional theory (DFT) is used to reveal the nature of the correlation.

A series of multicolor fluorescent N,O-bidentate BF2 complexes with variable ligand structures have been synthesized. These complexes exhibit the solvent-independent optical properties and large Stoke shifts. The electrochemical measurements demonstrate that all these chelates are better electron acceptors than the commonly used material Alq3. A qualitative structure–property relationship among these complexes has been established on the ground of the experimental data along with the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The theoretically calculated results are in good agreement with those obtained by the experimental determinations.

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