Organic Crystalline Solids Response to Piezo/thermo Stimulus: Donor–Acceptor (D–A) Attached Salicylaldehyde Azine Derivatives

A salicylaldehyde azine-based derivative, which exhibited switchable solid-state fluorescence in response to external thermal and mechanical grinding stimulus, was reported in this study. Diffuse reflectance solid-state spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, solid-state 13C and 1H NMR spectroscopy, single crystal XRD analyses, powder X-ray diffractometry, and differential scanning calorimetry were used for investigating the changes of molecular packing modes. The multistimuli fluorescence originated from two distinctive crystalline lattices via different π–π interactions. The local dipole coupling among molecules with donor–planar–acceptor structure was evidenced to be the essential factor for the effective solid luminescence-switching properties.