LAUSR

With the aim of highlighting the potential talent of the unique single-benzene skeleton versus the common large π-systems, we propose a general strategy to construct single-benzene fluorophores 1–9, featuring fascinating emission properties in the solid state, for example, high fluorescence quantum yields and wide variety of emission colors. Our molecular design is X-shaped tetrasubstituted benzene of which two electron-donating groups (EDGs) and two electron-withdrawing groups are arranged in an X-shaped fashion. This molecular design enables a very small single-benzene skeleton to show intense fluorescence in the solid state because the π–π stacking and dipole–dipole interaction are inherently avoided in the crystal. More importantly, by simply changing the EDGs, the emission colors in the solid state of these single-benzene fluorophores can be continuously tuned from deep blue to red. In addition, the potential applications of these single-benzene fluorophores as crystal lasing media have been demonstr...