Viologen derivatives with extendedπ-conjugation structures:From supra-/molecular building blocks to organic porous materials

Recently,increasing atte ntion has been paid on extending theπ-conjugation structures ofviologens(1,1’-disubstituted-4,4’-bipyridylium salts)by incorporating planar aromatic units into the bipyridinium backbones.Various viologen derivative s with extendedπ-conjugation structures have been synthesized,including the N-termini aromatic substituted viologens,the extendedπ-conjugated viologens(denoted as ECVs)as well as theπ-conjugated oligomeric viologens(denoted as COVs).These compounds typically exhibit interesting properties distinguished from those of an isolated viologen unit,which make them as new class of electron deficient supra-/molecular building blocks in supramolecular chemistry and materials science.In this review,we would like to highlight the recent advances of viologen derivatives with extendedπ-conjugation structures in versatile applications ranging from electrochromic and energy storage materials,the ECV/COV-based supramolecular self-assembly systems including the linear supramolecular polymers and 2D/3D supramolecular organic frameworks(SOFs),to the viologen-based covalent organic frameworks(COFs)/networks.We hope this review will serve as an in-time summary worthy of referring,more importantly,to provide inspiration in the rational design of novel molecules with unexplored properties and functions.