Investigating the effect of pH and functionalisation upon the self-assembly of NDIs

Stimuli responsive naphthalene diimides (NDIs) have promising potential in devices such as smart windows. NDIs can be easily and reversibly reduced to a highly coloured radical anion or dianion from a transparent or transmissive state. We believe that these systems are particularly sensitive to small changes, for example differing the functionality of the NDI or altering pH. We hypothesise that there is a related change in aggregation and self-assembly of the molecules when these factors are altered. Better understanding of this could be used to tailor colour and suitability to application. The ultimate aim of the project is to link properties such as aggregation and structure to desirable properties that we can measure experimentally such as colouration, reversibility, longevity of colour etc. Our materials are ill-suited to investigation with techniques other than neutron scattering.