Planarized B-phenylborataanthracene anions: structural and electronic impacts of coplanar constraint.

Potassium and lithium salts of anionic B-phenylborataanthracenes, whose phenyl groups were fixed in a coplanar fashion, were synthesized. These compounds exhibited solvent-separated ion pair structures both in the crystalline state and in solution. Planarization of the phenyl moiety had a remarkable impact on the photophysical properties, such as the red-shifted absorption and intense fluorescence.