4,4′,4″-(Benzene-1,3,5-triyltris(ethyne-2,1-diyl))tris(1-methylpyridin-1-ium) Iodide

Despite having been known for a long time, quaternary 4,40-bipyridinium salts, or viologens, are still a highly inspiring class of compounds, thanks to their peculiar redox and charge transfer properties. However, more complex structures containing multiple pyridinium rings, also interspaced by conjugated moieties, allow an even wider synthetic variability and tunability of their characteristics. The compound described herein is a star-shaped, fully conjugated molecule with three methylated pyridinium rings connected by a triple bond spacer to a central benzene core, which was synthesized from readily available building blocks, representing a quite simple model of multi-pyridyl extended viologen; its UV–visible absorption and fluorescence spectra have also been investigated.